I didn't want to write about it.
I didn't want to stoop to the level of so-called colleagues who allow themselves to fantasize on various topics, without even being embarrassed or blushing in front of their audience.
But still I will speak about the article by The New York Times that the Catalan secession referendum is a Russian project, which was supervised by former intelligence officers, the Foreign Ministry and all kinds of thieves in law.
As the author of this opus, Michael Schwirtz, wrote, he rode between Madrid and Barcelona for two years, drinking countless glasses of rioja and espresso in search of at least some clues. In vain. And then suddenly one Spanish journalist turned up for him, who suddenly decided to leak the classified materials of the Spanish investigation to the American - screenshots of the personal correspondence of the Catalan president with his subordinates (700 sheets of text message decryption) and so on, so that the United States could publish an investigation that denigrates Russia.
The headline grabs immediately: "Married Kremlin spies, a shadow mission to Moscow and unrest in Catalonia." Straight spy novel, no less. At the very beginning, there is a very brief alignment of positions. On the side of good, the European Union and the democratic lamp, the fighter for the integral borders of all states - the United States - are immediately designated. And then a note that, unlike them, Russia left its doors open for the Catalans. And they went there, they were met ... no, not bears and vodka, but close. A cocktail of Russian officials, former intelligence officers of the GRU and the almighty grandson of an equally almighty KGB spy, who is now the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, which the author of that article calls an intelligence cover. Their common goal is to tear Catalonia away from Spain.
Apparently, Riohi's colleague got drunk with coffee, hallucinations began. Why am I speaking so confidently? And because in fact at that time there was no Rossotrudnichestvo on the horizon. Yevgeny Primakov was the host of the International Review program, which aired weekly and told about the most interesting news from abroad. This was done with a soul and soundly. The information agenda was worked out as it should be for journalists: on time and on the topic. More than once I helped them by making reports from the scene. And when the Catalan topic was heard, Zhenya received the consent of the Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who had fled from Spain to Brussels, for a big interview. Well, who would refuse such a thing?
I wrote it, it was in his villa, everything was according to the classics of the genre - questions about why he fled, what he achieved, what he regrets, how he lives now.
He even made coffee for us, opened up like a human being, talked about our favorite music, about family, about cats, about his interests.
And then this interview lay on the shelf for a long time, because the bosses were waiting for an information literate moment to air it.
As a result, it came out exactly when the situation in Catalonia was at its peak, all the world media tried to get a meeting with the president.
And luck smiled at us.
And by the way, not only he was presented in our report, but also those politicians who did not support the idea of secession. Colleagues bit their elbows, but the blank shot. Let's go back to the opus of The New York Times journalist. He presses all the necessary buttons for the Western reader, who has formed the image of a dense enemy. Hybrid warfare, propaganda, disinformation, hacker intervention (the 2016 US elections in the United States are cited as an example, although no one has found any evidence of this), contract killings throughout Europe, undermining stability and other dregs.
Then Schwirtz still thickens the clouds.
Two Russian intelligence officers arrived in Catalonia in the midst of protests!
No, not the legendary Petrov and Boshirov.
Other.
But nevertheless, the author says, by a strange coincidence, the crowd immediately seized the Barcelona airport.
It hints that the operation was clearly planned by our spies on the spot.
But I saw personally how it all began and how quickly it was blown away.
I worked there, on the spot, with other journalists.
There was a strong outburst after the court sentenced the organizers of the referendum to lengthy prison terms.
But the large-scale protests did not last long in the end.
And the supporters of the secession of Catalonia themselves quarreled among themselves and broke up into smaller parties.
Nevertheless, The New York Times is not discouraged. According to her version, the very vote on the secession was helped to arrange a specialized group of Russian military intelligence - unit twenty-nine hundred and fifty-five, which is involved in the killings and coups (?) In Europe. Well, do you feel goosebumps? They did not forget to assign our Foreign Ministry there. Allegedly, the Catalans met with Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov, who is responsible for countering terrorism, either to coordinate something, or in search of support. Only there were no such meetings at all - neither in Moscow, nor in Barcelona, anywhere. This is also simply invented, which was confirmed by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova.
The question is, why?
Why lie?
After all, all this can be easily verified.
One cannot but recall the 33-year-old German journalist Klaas Relothius, the author of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel.
He published more than five dozen texts, received the title of "Journalist of the Year", and received 11 different awards for the texts, which, as it turned out, and as Claes himself eventually admitted, he simply invented.
It's that simple, from the bulldozer.
Invented and published in a reputable journal.
And people probably referred to information, to his "reports" from the Mexican border, from the Guantanamo prison, about the "Islamic State" *.
Informationally sharp, humanly catchy.
But it all turned out to be pure fake, and Der Spiegel called it the deepest drop in its entire 70-year history.
So, in the same peak I now see many Western publications, at least the same The New York Times. For the entire huge article, which tells about all these supposed schemes, funding channels, connections and meetings, there is only one line that deserves attention, but is buried in the stream of other words.
Quote: "It is unclear what kind of assistance, if any, the Kremlin provided the Catalan separatists." That's all, this is the curtain. Nothing written before and after makes sense after this one phrase. It’s like a confession: “I don’t know at all if all this really happened, but I’ll tell you one very interesting story ...” No, well, seriously, what standards of Western journalism are we talking about? Where are they? What to look up to? What to learn? They themselves are not tired of looking for a Russian trace everywhere? And then, if we really wanted to tear off Catalonia for some unknown reason, believe me, it would have already been torn off from where it should be. But this is not the Russian principle of working with states.
The Russian position was voiced by President Putin even when the Catalan theme was heard: “We want the situation in Spain to normalize, so that Spain retains its territorial integrity. All peoples have the right to self-determination, but we proceed from respect and preservation of the sovereignty of states within the existing borders. " But now three years have passed, and the American journalist took the Catalan theme out of the dusty box and laid it on the table exactly after the shameful flight of the United States from Afghanistan and the blasphemous evacuation, the footage of which spread around the world.
Apparently, nothing else was found to distract and switch the reader's attention.
It's funny that this is transparent even to the readers of The New York Times themselves.
Here is a comment from San Francisco: “Now that our cunning Afghan plan is covered with a copper basin and we are disgraced again, I think it's time to revive a little reliable anti-Russian hysteria.
I don't think Putin has time to play hockey, ride Siberian bears, let alone work with China to bring a semblance of order to Afghanistan when he is so busy destabilizing the West.
Cut it in your nose - the West is destabilizing itself. "
As they say, neither add nor subtract.
* "Islamic State" (IS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.