“Hide helplessness”: how the EP raised the question of “Russian intervention” in Catalonia

Member of the European Parliament Jordi Cañas turned to the European Commission with a question about how it is planned to counteract the alleged “interference” of Russia in the affairs of the EU countries.

“The European Parliament has repeatedly warned about Russia's attempts to destabilize our democracies and weaken the European Union. In this regard: what steps will the new composition of the European Commission take on the fight against Russian interference in the political and electoral processes of the EU states? ”Said the request of the European MP, the text of which was reviewed by RT.

In this case, Cañas refers to the publication of the newspaper El País, which cites data from some unnamed sources that the Spanish National Court initiated an investigation into the alleged interference in Spanish domestic politics by “military unit No. 29155,” the “Russian military intelligence organization suspected of promoting the Catalan separatist movement. " According to the newspaper, the military unit is allegedly involved in several attempts to destabilize the situation in Europe.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said they regard this article "as an attempt to undermine the successfully developing Russian-Spanish cooperation, including in the field of cybersecurity and countering disinformation."

Russia's ambassador to Spain, Yuri Korchagin, in turn, expressed regret that "a respected newspaper ... provides its pages for all kinds of insinuations and fake news."

• The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
• RIA News
• © Maxim Blinov

Note that to date, there is no evidence of a national court launching an investigation into Russia's alleged interference in Spanish domestic politics. Moreover, high-ranking Spanish officials are not aware of him.

So, according to the acting Foreign Minister of Spain, Josep Borrel, the kingdom's foreign affairs agency learned about this situation from the media. Answering journalists' questions after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Borrel stressed that he was not aware of the details of the case.

“I have no other information than from the press, the minister (Lavrov. - RT ) told me that he also knew nothing,” Borrell specified.

In addition, as noted by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, the head of the Spanish Foreign Ministry called such "fabrications a figment of feverish imagination."

“I would like to note that on November 21 during a speech to the press in Madrid, such passages were parried by himself and. about. Foreign Minister of Spain Mr. Borrell. He called such fabrications - I quote - pure slander, the fruit of feverish imagination. For our part, we can only share these estimates, ”Zakharova emphasized.

The activities of military unit No. 29155, the “top-secret Russian intelligence unit,” mentioned in the appeal of Cañas and in an article by El País, were also previously reported by The New York Times. The article said that the structure "seeks to destabilize Europe."

Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, commenting on this material, attributed it to the category of "pulp fiction." He stressed that the Russian leader has repeatedly said that Moscow is interested in building good relations with Europe as a whole and with its individual countries.

“Such publications are classified as pulp fiction,” he added.

Accusations from Madrid against Moscow are made, inter alia, due to the inability of the Spanish authorities to properly organize the administration in the regions. Such an opinion in an interview with RT was expressed by Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies of IMEMO RAS.

“Those politicians who address the Russian topic, as a rule (do it. - RT ), in order to hide their helplessness and inability. The conflict that the authorities of Catalonia and the central authorities have sparked between themselves is in a deadlock, from there it is necessary to somehow “steer”. They didn’t come up with anything smarter, except to make a nod towards Russia - supposedly the Russian Federation brought them there and they need to jointly look for ways to get out of there, ”the expert explained.

“The main task is to continue to blame Russia”

MEP Jordi Cañas notes that intelligence officials in some countries, such as the United States, believe that Russia "has repeatedly made attempts to destabilize Europe."

"In November 2017, while investigating allegations of a Russian conspiracy to influence the course of the US presidential election, the Senate Intelligence Committee discovered evidence of Russian interference in the elections in France and Germany, as well as its involvement in the separatist movement in Catalonia," Kanyas appeal to the EC.

It is worth noting that over the past few years, the tendency to accuse Russia of “interference” in the internal processes of foreign states has become the norm for the West.

In 2017, France stated that then presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron allegedly became the target of Russian media and cyber attacks from the territory of the Russian Federation, which, it was alleged, was aimed at helping their “pro-Russian candidates” in this way.

Germany also claimed to be “likely to interfere” with the 2017 Bundestag election. However, in a report released in 2018 by the counterintelligence of the Federal Republic of Germany, it was concluded that the suspicions of "interference" in Russia were not confirmed.

However, it is worth noting that in recent years, the world community has more often than anything else discussed the situation related to Russia's accusations of “interference” in the 2016 US presidential election.

So, some time after the election of Donald Trump to the post of head of state, the former US special prosecutor Robert Muller began an investigation to find evidence of Moscow's possible involvement in the voting results. In April 2019, a report with the results of the work of the team of the special prosecutor was published, but there was no evidence of Russia's "interference" in the American election process.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin
• RIA News
• © Mikhail Klimentyev

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the report is objective and confirms the absence of collusion between Moscow and the current US administration.

“Despite the exotic work of the commission of Mr. Muller, we must pay tribute to him: on the whole, he conducted an objective investigation and confirmed the absence of all traces and all kinds of collusion between Russia and the current administration, which we initially described as complete nonsense,” the Russian leader noted.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also repeatedly denied allegations against Russia. According to him, such methods of achieving goals for Moscow are unacceptable.

“I want to say right away that there would be no doubt: we never interfere in the internal affairs of other states. This is not our method, ”the minister said.

Political analyst Alexander Asafov, explaining the logic of a number of European countries that continue anti-Russian attacks after the publication of Muller’s report, said that EU officials are in some kind of their own reality. According to the expert, this prevents them from thinking rationally, because at the end of the investigation of the former special prosecutor, it should have become obvious to everyone that Russia had nothing to do with the results of the US presidential election, although earlier in Washington they insisted insistently.

“European colleagues live in their own track. They are not that incapable; they simply cannot draw any logical conclusions. If the investigation by Attorney Mueller, based on the false dossier of Christopher Steele (ex-British intelligence officer. - RT ), is a lie, then rhetoric must be changed. But no, rhetoric cannot be changed, because such political tasks are set by those with whom they interact - from Washington ... And it doesn’t matter how circumstances change, what evidence will be found or not found, it doesn’t even matter what exactly to blame: the main task is to continue to blame Russia, it will always be, ”Asafov summed up in a conversation with RT.