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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Alleged Russian Spy Worked for US Government News Agency |
| 2022-03-06 |
| [Free Beacon] Given Obama/Biden/Anti-Trump, how could they tell? A Spanish journalist arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia recently worked for Voice of America, the United States government's international media organization. Pablo Gonzalez was arrested at the Poland-Ukraine border earlier this week on charges that he was secretly working for Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU. Gonzalez, a Spanish national born in Russia, was identified as a freelance reporter for the Spanish outlets El Sixto and Publico. He has also worked as a freelance reporter for Voice of America (VOA) since at least 2020. Gonzalez helped produce a VOA segment from inside Ukraine last month, according to a Washington Free Beacon investigation. Gonzalez’s previously unreported work could raise concerns that he used his VOA position to collect intelligence for Russia. If Gonzalez is indeed a Russian spy, it would lend credence to concerns raised by Michael Pack, who oversaw VOA during the Trump administration. Pack came under fire from Democrats when he said VOA was "a great place to put a foreign spy" given the agency’s lax security standards. VOA staffers and others in the media accused Pack of undermining the agency and putting its journalists at risk. Poland’s internal security agency said Friday that Gonzalez was "conducting his business for Russia while taking advantage of his journalist status." The counterintelligence agency said Gonzalez collected information for Russia’s spy service during his recent stay in Poland and that he planned to continue his activities in war torn Ukraine. Gonzalez is identified as a cameraman for a Feb. 4 Voice of America story from Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine. The story told of residents’ preparations for a Russian invasion of Ukraine. A reporter who worked with Gonzalez on the story cast doubt on the allegations from Polish authorities. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |