Poland involved in prisoner swap between West and Russia

This article has been updated following official confirmation that Pavel Rubtsov was released by Poland as part of the prisoner swap.

Poland was involved in today’s large-scale prisoner swap between Russia and the West. It released Russian-Spanish dual citizen Pavel Rubtsov, also known as Pablo Gonzalez, who had been held by Poland since February 2022 on suspicion of spying for Russia while working as a journalist.

As the exchange – the largest such swap in recent times – took place in Ankara, the Turkish authorities announced that it involved people who had been held in “the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus”.

The Insider, an investigative journalism website with a focus on Russia, reported that the prisoner from Poland involved in the deal was Rubtsov.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Thursday evening that “the prisoner exchange operation has just ended, thanks to which Russian opposition heroes and detained citizens of NATO countries have left Russia”.

“The action was possible thanks to the involvement of our state,” he added. “I would like to thank President [Andrzej Duda] and the security services for their exemplary cooperation.”

Poland’s foreign ministry initially refused to confirm that Rubtsov had been released. But later, Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the security services, confirmed that he had indeed been included in the prisoner exchange “at the request of the US authorities”.

Dobrzyński wrote that Rubtsov was an officer of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, who had been “carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe” and was awaiting trial in Poland.

Rubtsov was born in Moscow in 1982 and nine years later moved to Spain, where his name was changed to Pablo Gonzalez. He worked as a journalist for outlets including TV station La Sexta and newspaper Público.

He was detained on suspicion of spying for Russia on 27 February 2022 – three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – in the Polish city of Przemyśl, which at the time was the main reception point for refugees fleeing Ukraine.

In the almost two and a half years since then, he has remained in Polish custody, with courts repeatedly extending his period of pretrial detention.

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That led to campaigns by media organisations, including the International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for his release.

“It is unacceptable for an EU member state to detain a journalist in such an arbitrary manner,” wrote the IFJ-EFJ earlier this year. It called on Poland to respect Rubtsov’s right to either be brought to trial in a timely manner or be released pending the trial.

According to The Insider, Rubtsov was accused of carrying out surveillance for Russia’s intelligence services. His digital devices reportedly contained detailed reports on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of murdered Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov.

Main image credit: IPI.media

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.