Who is Pavel Rubtsov, the journalist released in Russia-West prisoner swap?

A bald, bearded man carrying two backpacks walked down the stairs of a plane before he extended his right hand in a greeting.

His black T-shirt had an image of a stormtrooper, a soldier from George Lucas’s Star Wars movies. Below the character, there were four words: “Your empire needs you.”

The 42-year-old Pablo Gonzalez Yague, also known as Pavel Rubtsov, a Spanish-Russian journalist – and apparent Star Wars fan – was part of the biggest prisoner swap between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Awaiting his arrival and also extending his hand at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Twenty-six people were part of the August 2 exchange, including Vadim Krasikov, an alleged hitman for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and Russian opposition politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.

The last two are said to be targets of Rubtsov’s reports to his Moscow handlers.

Rubtsov, whom the Polish security services have accused of working for Russia’s military intelligence, has never admitted to being a Russian spy.

He was arrested on February 27, 2022, in the Polish city of Przemysl while reporting on the inflow of Ukrainian refugees after Russia’s invasion.

Days earlier, he had reported from eastern Ukraine but was asked by the Ukrainian security services to leave the country.

Born in 1982 in Moscow, Rubtsov acquired a double identity at birth. His Spanish side is from his mother while his father is Russian.

At the age of nine, after his parents divorced, he moved with his mother to Spain. He settled in the Basque country and then, Catalonia. After getting Spanish citizenship, he also got a new name: Pablo Gonzalez Yague. But he never gave up his Russian passport.

In Spain, he studied Slavic and security studies; married a Basque woman, Oihana Goiriena, with whom he had three children; and began his career as a journalist.

Goiriena has not been Rubtsov’s partner since at least 2016.

He worked for several Spanish media outlets, such as as La Sexta and Publico, and specialised in conflicts in the former Soviet Union. He covered the annexation of Crimea, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and other separatist republics in the region.

“He identified as a Basque, a Spaniard, a Catalan and a Russian. He found space within himself for all these identities,” a friend of Rubtsov’s who requested anonymity told Al Jazeera.

“He was intelligent, bright and had a great sense of humour. It was a pleasure to spend time with him whether you wanted to watch football, a political debate or dance. People flocked to him.”

After his arrest, rights groups, including Reporters without Borders and Amnesty International, criticised Poland for holding him in prison without trial. In Spain, his release was met with enthusiasm.

“His arrest, although no evidence was provided, was justified on the basis of suspicions of espionage in favour of Russia, which could not be proven,” the Federation of Journalists Associations of Spain, the largest Spanish journalistic organisation, wrote.

The atmosphere in Poland, where Rubtsov had lived since 2019, and among the Russian opposition circles he moved in has been less festive.

People who knew him feel angry, betrayed and are seeking explanations, which he has so far failed to offer, three of his friends told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

‘People with multiple identities are useful for security services’

An investigation by the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo from May 2023 found that Rubtsov provided detailed reports to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, on the activities of the Russian opposition and in particular Zhanna Nemtsova, whom he befriended in 2016. Nemtsova is the daughter of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was fatally shot just outside the Kremlin in 2015.

He reportedly downloaded documents from her computer, informed his handlers about activities of Russian opposition figures he met at events of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation and discussed financial remuneration for his work. According to the investigation, this information provided the basis for his imprisonment in Poland.

Agentstvo also reported that in 2017, Rubtsov travelled on the same plane as GRU agent Sergey Turbin. It said their tickets were purchased at the same time, using the same bank account.

“He was a very nice person and a very talented journalist. I immediately recognised him as someone who covered conflicts. We understood each other,” Irina Borogan, a Russian investigative journalist and expert in Russian security services who met Rubtsov through Nemtsova’s foundation, told Al Jazeera.

“It then turned out that his father has worked for the Russian intelligence under the guise of a journalist too. People with multiple identities are useful for the security services. Working for the Russian intelligence is often a family endeavour.”

Borogan has little doubt that Rubtsov was an important asset for the Kremlin.

“Putin stood up for him. After all, there are many more people with Russian passports imprisoned for hacking or collecting information in the West. The fact that he made it to the swap list means that he was valuable,” she said.

Wlodzimierz Sokolowski, aka Vincent V Seversky, a Polish author of spy novels and a former intelligence officer, agreed with Borogan’s assessment but added that journalists seldom make good spies.

“Journalists are people who like to shine and tend to distort the facts. It is often risky to work with them because it takes a lot of time and trial,” he said.

“At the same time, however, journalism is an excellent cover for intelligence officers because journalists have good reasons to meet people, politicians and access sensitive information. I know several intelligence officers who have posed as journalists all their lives.”