It seems an evil fate is haunting a part of the Spanish people which became exiles of their own country during the Spanish Civil war in 1930s. Now their children have turned into exiles again due to the conflict in Ukraine. These people have been in fact distorted by politicians even they still have a special status agreed by the governments of Spain and Russia.
Who are these Spaniards who have unwittingly absorbed the culture of the far northern country? How it is possible that their children again becoming victims of another turn in Russian-Spanish relations and are face the injustice denunciation of hard-won agreements?
Our editorial office became got to know the egregious situation when a person with a special status of a descendant of the “children of war” was outlawed and classified as a Russian spy by the European side. He has been arrested and held in a Polish prison for a year on suspicion of working for Russia as a Russian spy, and during all this time he has been deprived of the right to communicate with his wife and children.
He’s just a journalist. A journalist who tries to say truth to his readers, even if this truth is inconvenient for politicians. The name of this person is Pablo González Yagüe according to the Spanish passeport, and he is Pavel Aleksievich Rubtsov in all the official documents of the Russian state. The problem is that due to the peculiarities of both countries, the names in Spanish and Russian documents are often different. And ignorant Polish authorities decided that this was an argument in favor of the fact that Pavel is a spy with false documents of another person.
Pablo returned in Spain at the age of 9. He studed in Spain, he graduated university in Barcelona and was focusted on Slavic studies because this culture he knows better that most of people in Spain. And he decided to inform Spanish society upon the conflict in Ukraine as it is.
But the vicissitudes of the biography of an honest journalist who was born from a Basque mother and a Russian father would better be described by his loving wife, Oihana, who is in struggle for Pablo and waiting for him at home with two children. Let’s see the situation that this courageous woman agreed to describe the readers of “E-Vesti”.
E-Vesti: Oihana, your husband is “child of war”. He is linked with Spain and Russia both. What does it means for him and for you?
Oihana Goiriena: My husband Pablo is the grandson of a “child of war”, and he was born in Moscow. He is Spanish just on his mother’s side. The rest of his family is Russian. He has got strong familiar and cultural ties with Russia. So do I, because through him, Russia’s history and cultural legacy is part of me as well.
EV: Could you please describe us your first meeting with Pablo? How you have met, did he seemed Russian or Spanish for you?
Oihana Goiriena: In 2004 Pablo met my sister on an Erasmus course. Next year he came to the Basque Country to visit her. We met each other, Cupido dio his job, and he decided to live here with me.
In knew he’s Russian from the very beginning. It’s the first information he gives, because he is very proud about his origins.
EV: Pablo turned back to Spain when he was 9 y.o. If I understand well, he lived in Spain most part of his life? He studed in Spain and worked for Spain too?
Oihana Goiriena: When he was 9 years old his parents got divorced and his mother decided to move to Spain. Pablo grew up here. He studied high school and university in Barcelona. In the Basque Country he made Master studies on Multimedia Journalism and started working as a freelance journalist, specialized in the post-sovietic area.
EV: Your children, what language they use? Do they know about Russia?
Oihana Goiriena: He tried to teach russian language to our children, but it was not easy as he’s always travelling. The kids speak in Spanish with their father and in basque language with me and among each other.
EV: Have you ever been to Russia?
Oihana Goiriena: I think it’s a pity teatro they don’t speak russian, because we travel to Russia almost every year to visit our russian family.
EV: There is a number of associations of Russian “children of war”. Had your husband participated there?
Oihana Goiriena: As far as I know, Pablo doesn’t have any connection with any association of “children of war”.
EV: Pablo was working in dangerous conditions, nearby military zone. Why? Have you approved it?
Oihana Goiriena: Pablo always says that he is not a war-journalist. He covers the post-sovietic area, when there’s a conflict and when not. He covered the war in Donbass in 2014, and the war in Nagorno Karabaj, but also the “Euro-Maidan revolution”, elections in several countries… whatever happens in this area.
I didn’t like it when he covered war, conflicts or dangerous situations, but he always told me: “won’t you worry; I’ve got my PRESS identification, and if it is not enough with this, I’m also taking my helmet and my bulletproof-vest”. Of course I didn’t feel comfortable, but I approved it, because it is his job and he loves it.
EV: What now happens to Pablo, what are the news about his arrest?
Oihana Goiriena: Pablo was arrested on the 28th of february 2022. Since then we know very little about him nor his case. He is accused of espionage for Russia and against Poland, but till now the Polish authorities have not made public the charges against him. In the meanwhile, he remains in temporal or preventive detention, which has been prolonged course times already, every three months. We don’t know for how long this situación can go on, because the Polish Court hasn’t yet decided a date for the trial.
He has to wait. We have to gain patience and wait. But we are still waiting -13 months after- for the authorisation to speak with him by the phone, and for a second visit. His children (15, 10 and 7 years old) haven’t spoken with him in more than one year.
EV: What is the attitude of Pablo toward conflict in Ukraine?
Oihana Goiriena: In January 2022 he travelled to Ukraine to inform about the situation there. I once asked him: “Do you think there will be a war?”. He answered: “I don’t believe so. And there shouldn’t be; war is not good for anyone.”
Then war became a fact, he was arrested and we can not know his opinion.
EV: Did anyone help him? Does anyone helps? What we can do?
Oihana Goiriena: National and international press associations, Reporters Without Borders, IPI, Amnesty International, etc. are trying to help.
Políticas institutions such as the Basque Government, the Basque Parliament, the Navarrese Parliament, provincial-level institutions and some municipalities have expressed their institutional support for Pablo, requesting the Government of Spain to get more involved so that Pablo’s basic rights are respected and so that he has a fair trial.
We citizens can only continue to denounce this injustice, continue to put pressure on the government through the media and social networks.
His relatives, friends and former colleagues of master have created the Association FreePabloGonzalez (Freepablo.com) to report his situation, as well as to raise funds to cover the expenses of his defensa advocates . Anyone who wants to help in a more practical way can also do their bit through the crowfunding.
EV: What you and your husband think of journalism now? Is it possible to say the truth?
Oihana Goiriena: I think, and I bet Pablo will agree with me, that journalism is a dangerous job nowadays. In conflict situations, and even more so in times of war, journalists are forced to make propaganda. Or to pay the consequences, if they refuse to do so.
The truth is the first victim of war (someone stated this).
