Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González’s double life

Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González’s double life
This photo shared on social media sought the release of Spanish journalistPablo González from detention by Polish authorities, who arrested him in 2022 for allegedly spying for Russia. (Social media)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González’s double life

Spanish journalist or Russian spy? The mystery around Pablo González’s double life
  • Friends had organized protests in Spain demanding his release as Polish authorities kept him detained without charges
  • His inclusion from last week's US-Russia prisoner swap appears to confirm suspicions that he was a indeed Russian operative using his cover as a journalist

WARSAW, Poland: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reporters from around the world rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cover an exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Among them was Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019, working for Spanish news agency EFE, Voice of America and other outlets. Warsaw-based reporters knew him as an outgoing colleague who liked to drink beer and sing karaoke into the wee hours of the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was sent to Moscow as part of a prisoner swap, leaving behind both mysteries about who he really was and concerns about how Poland handled a case in which he was accused of being a Russian agent.
In the first days of the war, González provided stand-up reports to TV viewers in Spain against a backdrop of refugees arriving at the train station in the Polish border town of Przemysl.
But less than week into the war, Polish security agents entered the room he was staying in and arrested him. They accused him of “participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and said he was an agent of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.




A man identified as Pablo González, a freelance Spanish journalist who has been based in Poland since 2019, second from left, with shaved head, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the biggest prisoner swap between the US and Russia in post-Soviet history, upon their arrival at the Vnukuvo government airport outside Moscow on August 1, 2024. Gonzalez had another passport and another name: Pavel Rubtsov. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP)

Friends were astonished — and, as Poland held González without trial for months that turned into years, some grew skeptical and organized protests in Spain demanding his release. Authorities have never detailed the accusations.
But on Thursday evening, the burly 42-year-old with a shaved head and beard was welcomed home by President Vladimir Putin after being freed in the largest prisoner swap since the Soviet era.
His inclusion in the deal appears to confirm suspicions that González was a Russian operative using his cover as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in then-Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain with his Spanish mother at age 9, where he became a citizen and received the Spanish name of Pablo González Yagüe. He went into journalism, working for outlets Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It’s not clear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation remains classified and the spokesman for the secret services told The Associated Press that he could not say anything beyond what was in a brief statement. Poland is on high alert after a string of arrests of espionage suspects and sabotage, part of what the authorities view as hybrid warfare by Russia and Belarus against the West.
Polish security services said Poland included him in the deal due to the close Polish-American alliance and “common security interests.” In their statement, they said that “Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe.”
The head of Britain’s MI6 agency, Sir Richard Moore, said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was arrested in Poland after “masquerading as a Spanish journalist.”
“He was trying to go into Ukraine to be part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore said.
Another hint at his activities came from independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González said he used his base in Poland to travel to former Soviet countries including Ukraine and Georgia. He had a license to operate a drone and used it to film Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air for coverage on the 75th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation in 2020.
Voice of America, a US-government funded organization, confirmed that he worked briefly for them, but they have since removed any of his work from their website.
“Pablo González contributed to a few VOA stories as a freelancer over a relatively short period of time starting in late 2020,” spokesperson Emily Webb said in reply to an emailed query. “As a freelancer who provided content to a number of media outlets, his services were arranged through a third-party company used by news organizations around the world.”
“At no time did he have any access to any VOA systems or VOA credentials,” Webb said. “As soon as VOA learned of the allegations, we removed his material.”
Because Poland’s justice system was politicized under a populist government that ruled in 2015-23, some activists worried about whether his rights were respected. Reporters Without Borders was among the groups that called for him to be put on trial or released.
The group stands by its position that he should not have been held that long without trial. “You are innocent until a trial proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, the head of the group’s office in Spain told AP on Friday. He expressed frustration at the silence around the case, and the fact that there will apparently not be a trial at all, saying Poland has not presented the evidence it has against him.
But the group also says it expects González to provide an explanation now that he is free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist based in Warsaw, hung out with the man he knew as Pablo in Warsaw and Kyiv, as well as in Przemysl shortly before his arrest.
Arriens described him as a friendly, funny man with a macho demeanor and a chest covered in tattoos that he once showed off in a bar.
González mostly fit in, but seemed better-off than the average freelance journalist. He always seemed to have the newest and most expensive phones and computers, working at the Poland-Ukraine border with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro. He had plenty of money to spend in bars.
He recalled González once saying: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
“And I thought: ‘Man, freelance life is never too good. What are you talking about?’ I don’t know any freelancer who talks like this.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War, was known as a Basque nationalist with ties to the region’s independence movement.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist movements in Spain and elsewhere in an effort to destabilize Europe.
González’ wife in Spain had been advocating on his behalf during his detention in Poland, even though they were not living together at the time of his arrest.
Over the past years, the suspect’s supporters ran an account on Twitter, now X, to advocate for his release.
When he was sent to Moscow on Thursday, the @FreePabloGonzález account tweeted: “This is our last tweet: Pablo is finally free. Endless thanks to all.”
Those who have followed the case are now awaiting González’s next moves.
He has Spanish citizenship — and the right to return to the European Union. His wife was quoted in Spanish media saying she hopes he can return to Spain.


IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building

IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building
Updated 20 September 2024
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IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building

IDF to review video of soldiers throwing Palestinian bodies from building
  • Israeli forces are reported to have knocked over pedestrians after 10-hour assault on Qabatiya
  • Neither identities nor cause of death were immediately known

LONDON: The Israeli Defense Forces have confirmed they are “reviewing” a video which appears to show their soldiers throwing the bodies of three Palestinians from a building in the West Bank.

According to an Associated Press journalist on the scene and obtained video footage, the soldiers allegedly killed the three men before pushing them from the top of a structure in Qabatiya.

“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers,” said a statement from the organization.

No formal investigation has yet been launched.

The incident happened following a 10-hour military assault on Qabatiya, where Israeli forces reportedly knocked over pedestrians as they hurtled through the town in armored vehicles.

Israel claimed its troops killed four militants in the assault. However, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah reported only one confirmed death, with 10 people hospitalized.

This is the latest in a series of alleged violations by the Israeli military, with human rights groups expressing concern over excessive force used against Palestinians.

In the video, soldiers are seen standing on the ground while troops peer over the roof of the building before pushing a body over the edge. In a second instance, soldiers are shown swinging a body over the side by its limbs, and in a third the body is kicked to the edge before falling.

Photos captured by AP during Thursday’s raid show an Israeli army bulldozer near the buildings where the bodies were dropped. Other journalists at the scene also witnessed the bodies being pushed.

Neither the identities of the dead nor the cause of their deaths were immediately known.

The AP reporter who witnessed the raid said they saw a blindfolded and shirtless Palestinian man kneeling before an Israeli army jeep and armed soldiers.


Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award

Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award
Updated 20 September 2024
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Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award

Gazan journalist Shrouq Al Aila to receive CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award
  • Despite having been displaced repeatedly by relentless Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war in Gaza

LONDON: Palestinian journalist Shrouq Al Aila, who has been covering Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, is set to receive a 2024 International Press Freedom Award in November, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced on Thursday.

Al Aila, 29, is among four awardees who “have withstood extraordinary challenges to continue reporting on their communities while experiencing war, prison, government crackdowns, and the rising criminalization of their work,” CPJ said in a statement.

A journalist, producer and researcher, Al Aila assumed leadership of Ain Media, a Gaza-based independent production company, after Roshdi Sarraj, her husband and the firm’s co-founder, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October.

On Oct. 7, the Israeli military launched a bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip after Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel. The hostilities have so far killed at least 41,272 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the enclave’s health authority.

The onslaught has displaced more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population at least once, devastated the health, sanitation and water services, and annihilated entire residential neighborhoods.

Repeatedly displaced by the Israeli bombardment, Al Aila continues to cover the war and its devastating impact on Gaza’s residents.

Al Aila and her late husband Sarraj were on a business trip in Saudi Arabia when the war started in their hometown Gaza, prompting them to quickly return to report on the developments.

On Oct. 22, Sarraj was killed in an Israeli airstrike, and Al Aila swiftly assumed responsibility and headed their company, Ain Media.

Alongside Al Aila, CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards this year will also recognize journalists Quimy de Leon from Guatemala, Alsu Kurmasheva who was detained in Russia, and Samira Sabou from Niger.


‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale

‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale
Updated 20 September 2024
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‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale

‘Regulation not legislation’: Nadhim Zahawi slams UK for blocking Telegraph sale
  • Former MP, channeling late PM Margaret Thatcher, insists ‘UK should always be open for business’
  • Zahawi’s comments part of exclusive Arab News interview to be broadcast this weekend

LONDON: Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi has criticized the UK government for blocking the sale of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator to a UAE-led media company earlier this year, calling the decision “a terrible error of judgment.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Arab News for the season premiere of “Frankly Speaking,” Zahawi expressed disappointment at the decision.

“If Margaret Thatcher (had a say, she) would have said the UK should always be open for business.

“The way you protect particular sectors of the economy, if they require protection, whether it’s nuclear or media, it’s through regulation — good regulation — not legislation.”

The sale of the titles was halted due to government concerns over foreign ownership in critical sectors like the media.

Zahawi, who served as chair of the Conservative Party until January 2023, said he disagreed with colleagues who opposed the sale, especially given the growing economic ties between the UK and the UAE.

He said RedBird IMI, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments and US-based RedBird Capital led by former Vice President of CNN International Rani Raad, deserved credit for securing what he called an “incredible sale” of The Spectator for £100 million ($133 million) to Sir Paul Marshall, a hedge fund tycoon and major investor in GB News.

Zahawi, who founded and served as CEO of market research firm YouGov, declined to comment on the ongoing discussions regarding the sale of The Telegraph and dismissed those who questioned his own possible involvement in a takeover.

“I won’t comment on a live commercial process,” he said. “Suffice to say that it would be an honor and a privilege to lead a great newspaper like The Daily Telegraph.”

RedBird IMI, which owns The National, Sky News Arabia and holds stakes in Euronews and other media companies, took control of The Telegraph and The Spectator in December 2022 after repaying a £600 million debt owed by the Barclay family to Lloyds Bank.

However, UK legislation passed in April aimed at curbing foreign state ownership of newspapers prevented the group from assuming full control.

In September, reports surfaced that Zahawi, who acted as a mediator between RedBird IMI and potential buyers, had allegedly approached former Conservative Party treasurer Sir Mohamed Mansour, an Egyptian-born businessman, to help finance his own bid for the broadsheet.

He was also reported to have held talks with the Reuben family, property billionaires with a stake in Newcastle United Football Club.

In the interview, Zahawi also reflected on his personal journey from Baghdad to the UK, sharing experiences of financial hardship, racism and political awakening during his time at university. He discussed his new book, “The Boy from Baghdad,” his views on the Labour Party, the recent riots in the UK and the country’s immigration policies.

The full “Frankly Speaking” interview will be available on Sunday on Arab News’ website and social media platforms.


Fake celebrity endorsements, snubs plague US presidential race

Fake celebrity endorsements, snubs plague US presidential race
Updated 20 September 2024
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Fake celebrity endorsements, snubs plague US presidential race

Fake celebrity endorsements, snubs plague US presidential race
  • A database from the nonprofit News Literacy Project has so far listed 70 social media posts peddling fake “VIP” endorsements and snubs
  • Elon Musk-owned X has emerged as a hotbed of political disinformation after the platform reinstated accounts of known purveyors of falsehoods, researchers say

WASHINGTON: Taylor Swift did not endorse Donald Trump. Nor did Lady Gaga or Morgan Freeman. And Bruce Springsteen was not photographed in a “Keep America Trumpless” shirt. Fake celebrity endorsements and snubs are roiling the US presidential race.
Dozens of bogus testimonies from American actors, singers and athletes about Republican nominee Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris have proliferated on social media ahead of the November election, researchers say, many of them enabled by artificial intelligence image generators.
The fake endorsements and brushoffs, which come as platforms such as the Elon Musk-owned X knock down many of the guardrails against misinformation, have prompted concern over their potential to manipulate voters as the race to the White House heats up.
Last month, Trump shared doctored images showing Swift threw her support behind his campaign, apparently seeking to tap into the pop singer’s mega star power to sway voters.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump posted on social media this AI-generated image claiming to show his Democratic rival Kamala Harris addressing a gathering of communists in Chicago. Trump accuses Harris of being a communist. (X: @realDonaldTrump)

The photos — including some that Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said bore the hallmarks of AI-generated images — suggested the pop star and her fans, popularly known as Swifties, backed Trump’s campaign.
What made Trump’s mash-up on Truth Social “particularly devious” was its combination of real and fake imagery, Farid told AFP.
Last week, Swift endorsed Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, calling the current vice president a “steady-handed, gifted leader.”
The singer, who has hundreds of millions of followers on platforms including Instagram and TikTok, said those manipulated images of her motivated her to speak up as they “conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.”
Following her announcement, Trump fired a missive on Truth Social saying: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!“

A combination image posted by Trump haters on social media shows a doctored picture of Bruce Springsteen campaigning against Donald Trump (right frame). The image was apparently a tampered version of a real picture shared on social media (left). (Social media photos)

A database from the News Literacy Project (NLP), a nonprofit which recently launched a misinformation dashboard to raise awareness about election falsehoods, has so far listed 70 social media posts peddling fake “VIP” endorsements and snubs.
“In these polarizing times, fake celebrity endorsements can grab voters’ attention, influence their outlooks, confirm personal biases, and sow confusion and chaos,” Peter Adams, senior vice president for research at NLP, told AFP.
NLP’s list, which appears to be growing by the day, includes viral posts that have garnered millions of views.

 

Among them are posts sharing a manipulated picture of Lady Gaga with a “Trump 2024” sign, implying that she endorsed the former president, AFP’s fact-checkers reported.
Other posts falsely asserted that the Oscar-winning Morgan Freeman, who has been critical of the Republican, said that a second Trump presidency would be “good for the country,” according to US fact-checkers.
Digitally altered photos of Springsteen wearing a “Keep America Trumpless” shirt and actor Ryan Reynolds sporting a “Kamala removes nasty orange stains” shirt also swirled on social media sites.
“The platforms have enabled it,” Adams said.
“As they pull back from moderation and hesitate to take down election related misinformation, they have become a major avenue for trolls, opportunists and propagandists to reach a mass audience.”

In particular, X has emerged as a hotbed of political disinformation after the platform scaled back content moderation policies and reinstated accounts of known purveyors of falsehoods, researchers say.
Musk, who has endorsed Trump and has over 198 million followers on X, has been repeatedly accused of spreading election falsehoods.
American officials responsible for overseeing elections have also urged Musk to fix X’s AI chatbot known as Grok — which allows users to generate AI-generated images from text prompts — after it shared misinformation.

Grok, the AI chatbot of X (formerly known as Twitter), allows users to generate AI-generated images from text prompts.

Lucas Hansen, co-founder of the nonprofit CivAI, demonstrated to AFP the ease with which Grok can generate a fake photo of Swift fans supporting Trump using a simple prompt: “Image of an outside rally of woman wearing ‘Swifties for Trump’ T-shirts.”
“If you want a relatively mundane situation where the people in the image are either famous or fictitious, Grok is definitely a big enabler” of visual disinformation, Hansen told AFP.
“I do expect it to be a large source of fake celebrity endorsement images,” he added.
As the technology develops, it’s going to become “harder and harder to identify the fakes,” said Jess Terry, Intelligence Analyst at Blackbird.AI.
“There’s certainly the risk that older generations or other communities less familiar with developing AI-based technology might believe what they see,” Terry told AFP.
 


MCN Academy fosters talent development in Saudi through program for graduates

MCN Academy fosters talent development in Saudi through program for graduates
Updated 20 September 2024
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MCN Academy fosters talent development in Saudi through program for graduates

MCN Academy fosters talent development in Saudi through program for graduates
  • The 6-month program includes various disciplines

DUBAI: Regional advertising group Middle East Communications Network’s talent hub MCN Academy has launched a new graduate program in Saudi Arabia to attract and train young local talent.

The six-month program includes various disciplines such as advertising, media, PR, strategy, data, and social and digital media.

It will combine learning with hands-on experiences and behavioral guidance, including critical thinking and problem-solving. Students will be trained across the network’s agencies in Saudi Arabia, which include FP7 McCann, UM, MRM, and Weber Shandwick.

The first five months of the program focus on technical and behavioral skills training across disciplines and agencies, while the sixth month sees students work on a project that could result in an employment offer.

An MCN spokesperson told Arab News: “Based on the quality, engagement and project output, the objective is to offer talents an employment contract.”

The first edition of the program launched in the summer and the second is due to launch in February 2025.

The spokesperson added: “The courses run continuously every six months so a new cohort of graduates will begin in February, and so on.”

Shoaa Salman Alawni, who is part of the program, said that it marked “an important step” in her professional journey by allowing her to explore different fields within media and advertising before deciding on one.

After graduating from the College of Media and Communication at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, MCN Academy’s program had allowed her to “find professional support that enhanced my skills and gave me confidence in my choices,” she added. 

Yazan Farrash, a marketing graduate from Prince Sultan University, said that she chose to enroll as part of her co-op program, which required students to work at a company as part of the course.

She told Arab News: “I have been exposed to the many fields and functions of MCN’s agencies and, more importantly, I was given the opportunity to grow in each of these environments.”

The program is open to all Saudi graduates, who can apply through their universities, job fairs, or by emailing [email protected].