- Pablo Gonzalez turned out to be Pavel Rubtsov, a regular spy for the Russian GRU
- Frontstory journalists point out that the story of Pablo Gonzalez has another heroine, Polish journalist Natalia K. (name and initials have been changed)
- The woman is Rubtsov’s partner and has been charged with aiding and abetting espionage. However, the court did not agree to her arrest, so after some time she returned to her reporter’s work.
- Natalia K., however, remained silent about her involvement in the espionage scandal.
- After Pablo Gonzalez was detained, Natalia K. defended her partner in informal conversations and downplayed the prosecutor’s findings. Only in recent months has she begun to distance herself from the Russian spy
- More important information can be found on the Onet home page
Pablo Gonzalez, or rather Pavel Rubtsov, spent the last two and a half years in Polish custody. The man, who posed as a journalist, turned out to be a regular officer of the Russian GRU. He was detained in February 2022 in a hotel in Przemyśl. In August of that year, he was sent to Moscow along with a group of spies whom Moscow exchanged for political prisoners.
Rubtsov was greeted at the airport by Vladimir Putin himself. Footage from that moment shows them shaking hands, the man smiling at the Russian dictator and nodding.
The Unknown Heroine of the Espionage Scandal
Frontstory journalists point out that the story of Pablo Gonzalez has another heroine, Polish journalist Natalia K. (name and initials have been changed). The woman was detained by the ABW the same night the services conducted an operation concerning the Russian spy.
The woman is Rubtsov’s partner and has been charged with aiding and abetting espionage. After their arrest, the ABW searched the couple’s apartment in Warsaw. Rubtsov was taken into custody, but the court did not agree to a similar decision in the case of his partner. Probably because the prosecutor’s charges were too weak.
The Silence of Natalia K.
The Frontstory portal points out that only a handful of her friends and a few journalists knew about Natalia K.’s arrest. Few of the couple’s Polish friends who were staying in their apartment knew about Pablo Gonzalez’s Russian identity. After some time, Natalia K. also returned to her work as a reporter. She never publicly mentioned her case with the ABW, although she spoke in important debates. She also visited the Sejm and participated in a NATO conference. The editorial offices she worked for probably did not know that the woman had been charged.
Continuation of the material below the video
Pavel Rubtsov, who operated under his middle name and surname Pablo Gonzalez, had been working in Poland since the fall of 2019. That was also when he allegedly met Natalia K. The couple lived together and traveled together to hot spots around the world. Gonzalez published his texts in Spanish and Catalan media, among others. The woman, in turn, reported on events in Poland and the world for commercial, mainly foreign stations. The journalist appeared in places such as Donbas in Ukraine and the Polish-Belarusian border. During one of the conversations, which was intercepted by Polish services, Rubtsov allegedly said that the woman “believed my legend.”
Thanks to Natalia, the Russian spy had access to various environments
Frontstory describes how Natalia K. and Pablo Gonzalez’s Warsaw apartment was visited by friends from the media world, and the language of conversation was often English. “I look at it differently today, but sometimes someone’s cell phone or laptop would run out of power. Not to mention working away, there was always a lot going on there, chargers and power banks flying around. Now I wonder if he could have been sucking up some data from us, investigating someone,” says one of the couple’s friends in an interview with the portal.
Another acquaintance points out that thanks to Natalia the Russian spy “had access to various contacts, environments, went for beers with correspondents, built relationships, inspired trust”.
Natalia K.’s doubts and threats of lawsuits
Frontstory journalists have established that many months before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Natalia K. began to have doubts about whether her partner was cooperating with Russian services. However, it is not known what she did with them. When the portal wanted to ask her about it, she threatened that if her name was revealed, she would bombard journalists with expensive lawsuits.
After Pablo Gonzalez was detained, Natalia K. defended her partner in informal conversations and downplayed the prosecutor’s findings. According to Spain’s El Independiente, the woman did not know that her partner was not divorced. He has three children with his current wife. Natalia K. has only recently begun to distance herself from the Russian spy.
