The Russian spy Pavel Rubtsov, among individuals released as part of the prisoner swap with the US in August, is reported to have recorded several of his “encounters of a close kind” with Polish female journalists.
Apparently, these tapes are now in the hands of the Russians as well as the Polish security services.
The alleged revelations were published by Conservative portals Niezależna.pl and DoRzeczy.pl. According to an anonymous X user operating under the pseudonym “John Bingham” — Bingham is the name of the famously-missing Lord Lucan — Rubtsev had several romantic encounters with female journalists that were recorded. These tapes have reportedly made their way to Moscow.
“Bingham” suggested that copies of these compromising recordings are in the hands of Polish as well as Russian authorities.
In the post the author wrote: “Dear journalists, your compromising adult material with the participation of Pavel Rubtsov from GRU are already in Moscow. Have a nice day,” adding: “The originals have been secured, but their copies went to Moscow a long time ago” and that the female journalists involved had provided “patriotic input into the Rubtsov-Gonzales affair”.
To jest naprawdę gruba historia. Drogie koleżanki-dziennikarki, gwiazdy nowoczesnej, europejskiej, uśmiechniętej żurnalistyki. Wasze kompromitujące filmy dla dorosłych z udziałem Pawła Rubcowa z GRU są już w Moskwie. Miłego dnia!#PegasusGites pic.twitter.com/sSMAAioQe7
— John Bingham (@MrJohnBingham) October 21, 2024
The reports have raised concerns that the videos, if genuine, could now be used by either Russian or Polish security service as “compromats” to blackmail the female journalists allegedly involved or to gain other forms of political leverage.
Following his release, Rubtsov was greeted personally at Moscow airport by Russian President Vladimir Putin after being flown in from Turkey.
He had worked as a journalist in Poland for four years under the alias “Pablo Gonzales” until he was arrested shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and charged with spying. He was living with a Polish female journalist who has worked for Euronews, France24 and The Guardian.
She cannot be named because she was also arrested and charged with assisting Rubtsov in his allegedly illegal activities and Polish law protects the names of people indicted until they are convicted.
Unlike Rubtsov, who was detained until being returned in the prisoner swap, a Polish court ordered the immediate release of the woman. She then continued to work for foreign media in Poland until the summer of this year when her identity became known, despite her threats to sue the publishers who revealed it.
Like Rubtsov, she wrote material highly critical of Poland’s former Conservative (PiS) government, especially with regard to the way it was alleged to be “pushing back” illegal migrants across the border with Belarus.
Rubtsov’s arrest led to protests by some Liberal Polish politicians and many journalists and was also criticised in a European Commission report on the state of media freedom in Poland the same year.
He was to be tried for spying and as a result gained the right to have access to the materials Poland’s security services had managed to obtain about him.
He was then released in the prisoner swap as Poland worked with the US for the deal to go ahead.
Some Polish media and the PiS opposition criticised the present Liberal government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk for failing to secure the release of Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish minority activist and journalist who is still languishing in a Belarusian labour camp having been convicted for trying to overthrow the Lukashenko regime.
