Who is Pavel Rubtsov, the journalist released in Russia-West prisoner swap?
Al Jazeera
Rubtsov, who has Spanish and Russian citizenship, was greeted by President Putin last week after spending years in a Polish jail.
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.
