Former Catalan leader denies seeking Russia’s support for independence push

OVIEDO, Spain

Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on Thursday denied allegations that members of his government met with Russian officials to gain support for the region’s independence push.

“Everything along those lines is pure fantasy and speculation, that has no other interest besides discrediting or attacking the reputation of the independence movement,” he wrote in an op-ed published by Catalan daily La Vanguardia.

Puigdemont’s statements came after his senior advisor Josep Lluis Alay admitted to having visited Russia in 2019 and having contact with members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

However, in an interview with radio RAC1, he insisted that he was there organizing media appearances for Puigdemont and was not “looking for the direct support of any country.”

Alay was responding to media reports that suggested that members of the Catalan government visited Moscow seeking the Kremlin’s support as well as recognition of independence from Armenia.

Gabriel Rufian, head of the left-wing Catalan separatist party ERC, slammed Puigdemont’s foreign policy this week, sowing division in the Spanish region’s pro-independence coalition government.

“They were little lords traveling around Europe, with the wrong people, because they thought they were James Bond,” he told media, claiming they were there “for selfies” and do not represent the independence movement.

Allegations of interference

Last year, a New York Times investigation insinuated that Alay’s meetings with Russian officials in both Moscow and Spain were behind massive and violent protests led by the secretive group Tsunami Democratic in 2019.

The protests, set off after several separatist leaders were sentenced to years behind bars for their roles in the 2017 illegal referendum and failed independence declaration, lasted for more than a month and involved nightly rioting.

A Bellingcat investigation claimed that at least three suspected members of the elite Russian intelligence agency GRU traveled to Catalonia between 2016 and 2017.

One was Denis Sergeev, a GRU agent who has been charged for his alleged involvement in the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK, who traveled to Barcelona on the eve of the referendum on independence.

A US Senate report also said that there was evidence that “Kremlin-run news outlets like RT and Sputnik, reinforced by bots and fake social media accounts, carried out a disinformation campaign” during the illegal vote.

The report claimed that the goal of Russia’s interference was to destabilize the EU.

Spanish authorities continue to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the Catalan independence movement.