The National Prosecutor's Office has confirmed that GRU agent Pavel Rubtsov was able to familiarize himself with all the evidence that had been collected against him, prompting fears he may have read classified material.
Working under the pseudonym of Pablo González, Rubtsov spent years posing as a Spanish journalist, covering various conflicts. However, in February 2022 his luck finally ran out when he was detained in the southeastern Polish city of Przemyśl while reporting on the unfolding refugee crisis.
Regarded as the most high-profile Russian agent in Polish hands, he was traded last month in the largest prisoner swap between East and West in post-Soviet history.
Prior to his release Rubtsov was given access to his files.
Przemysław Nowak, a spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, said: “Before the investigation was closed, Pablo G. exercised his right under Article 321 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.” As such, Nowak admitted that Rubtsov would have become “acquainted with the entirety of the evidence [against him] and therefore of classified material.”
While the Prosecutor’s Office has claimed they had a legal obligation to allow Rubtsov to access his files, their decision has sparked an uproar.
One high-ranking officer of the Internal Security Agency told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita: “This was a mistake [to allow Rubtsov to read his files]. The Prosecutor’s Office, knowing that he would be swapped, should have denied him access on the basis of Article 156 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.”
Speaking anonymously, the officer continued: “This provision was introduced in 2021 to protect important state interests and is intended as a safety valve. Why was it not used?”
The Prosecutor’s Office, however, denied that there were any state secrets that could harm Poland.
Nowak said: “He learned about his behavior from these materials. There are no secrets in the sense of state security, there are no disclosed operational techniques, no data enabling the identification of officers who conduct any activities that should not be disclosed.”
Greeted personally by Vladimir Putin after landing in Russia following his release, Rubtsov is known to have spent two weeks reading his files in July.
Kazimierz Olejnik, a former deputy general prosecutor in the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) government, also slammed the decision: “The Prosecutor’s Office should select and make available to Rubtsov only the materials on which it based the charge.”
Continuing, Olejnik said: “The rest, including, for example, information important for the security of the state, should not be shown.”
While many agree that Rubtsov was far from a ‘super-spy’, Polish intelligence officers fear that the Russian agent may have passed on details about their methods of operation as well as their technical and forensic capabilities.
Likewise, even if Rubtsov was unable to glean direct personal data regarding Polish agents in his orbit, their profiles would also be of importance to the Kremlin.
