On August 1, 2024, sixteen political prisoners were released from Russian prisons in exchange for eight Russian criminals being held for various crimes in several different countries, in what was the biggest and most complex hostage exchange since the end of the Cold War.

See that man in the blue tee shirt (center front) and the obviously scared little boy holding his hand? They are Artyom and Daniel, father and son of the Dultsev family, recently returned to Russia after years of living abroad as “illegals,” first in Argentina and more recently in Slovenia — although Daniel and his sister Sofia were unaware until that very day that they were Russian and not Argentinian, and . . . well, I’ve already told their story (“The Children of Spies,” 8/7/24), and the Dultsevs are not the subject of this one.

To Artyom’s left (our right) in the first picture, in the striped jacket and baseball cap, is the real star of the exchange, Vadim Krasikov — the Russian hitman, until that day serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Chechen emigre on the orders of the man with his back to us in the picture: Vladimir Putin. Krasikov seems to have been the linchpin upon which the success of the whole complicated transaction rested.

Both of those men — Krasikov and Dultsev — have become well-known as a result of this momentous event. But not the others, and we may never know exactly who they are, or why they were so important to Putin that he agreed to accept just eight of his people in exchange for sixteen of ours.

Except for the seemingly shy fellow with the shaved head, second from left, trying to remain invisible behind the man in the khaki shirt. He has just been outed by the Polish government, which has retroactively indicted him on espionage charges, some two weeks after letting him leave the country. His name is Pablo Gonzalez . . . or Pavel Rubtsov . . . depending on where he is.

He was born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in Moscow, but moved to Spain with his Spanish mother at age nine. There he became a citizen, receiving the Spanish name of Pablo Gonzalez Yague. He eventually became a journalist, working for outlets Publico, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper. [Vanessa Gera, Associated Press, August 14, 2024.]

On February 28, 2022, Rubtsov — let’s call him by his original name — was arrested in Poland, where he had lived since 2019, on charges of espionage. He was accused of being an agent of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU), who “carried out activities for Russia using his journalistic status. As a result, he was able to move freely around Europe and the world, including zones affected by armed conflicts and areas of political tension.” He had been scheduled to cross the border into Ukraine that day with a group of reporters. [Graham Keeley, VOA News, March 9, 2022.]

Authorities alleged that while in Poland he had “obtained information the use of which by the Russian secret services could have a direct negative impact on the internal and external security and defense of our country” and that he was about to travel to Ukraine to “continue his activities.” [VOA News, id.]

Rubtsov, of course, has consistently denied all of the allegations against him . . . which immediately brings to mind the cases of Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and other legitimate journalists who have been falsely accused and convicted of espionage in Russia. The facts and circumstances of their cases are vastly different, of course. But is it not also understandable that Rubtsov would now claim, under the protection of his journalistic credentials, to have been similarly falsely charged?

On the other hand, if he hasn’t lived in or been connected to Russia since he was nine years old, why would he have been included by Putin in the exchange?

And — as the real point of this whole exercise — why on earth would the Polish authorities file new charges against him after releasing him, now that he is safely out of their grasp in Mother Russia?

And therein lies the most perplexing question of all: Why now?

A prosecutor in the city of Lublin, Poland, filed the indictment on August 9th. In accordance with Polish privacy laws, the indicted individual was identified only as “Pablo G. Y. and Pavel R..” [A.P., id.] But it is said to be clear from other details that the case is against Pavel Rubtsov. In the indictment, Rubtsov is accused of espionage, which in Poland carries a prison term of three to fifteen years.

Specifically, the defendant in that case is accused of “providing information to Russian military intelligence from April 2016 to February 2022 in Przemysl, Warsaw and elsewhere, ‘which could cause damage to the Republic of Poland, including as a NATO member state.’” It was not indicated whether Rubtsov would be tried in absentia. [A.P., id.]

And to add to the mystery, the prosecutor’s office advised that separate investigations are underway into an unspecified number of other people, including a woman named only as Magdalena Ch. — apparently known as Rubtsov’s ex-girlfriend.

Perhaps Rubtsov, or Gonzalez, or whoever he is has only been belatedly charged because of his association with these “other people.” If so, that would totally blow the possibility of his being an innocent journalist clear out of the water.

And so, the plot thickens.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/17/24