Puigdemont's 'Russian reverie'

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• LEYRE CHURCHES

  @Leyre_Iglesias

Sunday, 1 November 2020 - 21:56

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• 'Operation Volhov'.

  The detainees boasted that Russia came to offer 10,000 soldiers to Carles Puigdemont to turn Catalonia into a 'Switzerland'

Barcelona, ​​May 28, 2018. Seven months have passed since the independence referendum on October 1, 2017.

lives in Waterloo, the Article 155 elections have already been held and Quim Torra has been ruling Catalonia for 11 days.

But the efforts of the clique of the

escaped

former

does not stop.

In fact, that day, two henchmen from Puigdemont are going to fly to Moscow.

For what?

One of them is

Former head of international relations at Convergència and a personal friend of Puigdemont, he has been in contact for a long time with a «Russian group» created - he says - in the days of

that can help them in two important projects in which his traveling companion,

businessman and former ERC official, is also involved.

On the one hand, they want to develop a secret cryptocurrency platform with which the Generalitat can avoid state control in its capital movements.

On the other, the "Russian group" has shown interest in participating in some "communication issues" related to the Mediapro magnate,

Four days before that scheduled flight to Moscow, Terradellas's unexpected arrest thwarted the trip.

But the recordings that he secretly made of his telephone conversations, in the

style

, have reached the hands of the Civil Guard and have now led to more details of the relationship that the independence movement forged with Russia even some time after that referendum that the Supreme Court downgraded to mere

According to the records of the

(or

, in this there is no agreement), ordered this week in Catalonia by the examining court number 1 of Barcelona, ​​Russia supposedly offered

to the Government for it to proclaim the Republic, helped him in his disinformation campaigns and

and, months later, he lent himself to support the Generalitat in the development of its own currency system.

Four key characters stand out in all this: the two frustrated travelers, Víctor Terradellas (who acted as a link with Russia) and Xavier Vendrell (a very influential businessman from Esquerra Republicana), and two other businessmen,

(editor and founder of the independence newspaper

) and

(former all-powerful advisor to Artur Mas).

The last three were part of the so-called

that led the

in the shadows, they are also investigated for irregularly financing the life of Puigdemont in Waterloo and they were elusive and apparently untouchable figures, until now.

TERRADELLAS AND THE "10,000 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS"

The part of the investigation that has to do with what could be called the

offers some data on the offer that Russia, always interested in destabilizing the European Union, would have transferred to the Government in the most critical months.

The key man with Russia, the link, is Víctor

a fervent sovereignist who already in 2016 noted, name by name, the degree of adherence to the cause that in his opinion the high command of the Mossos d 'Esquadra.

The

current investigation has emerged

from the operation for which he was arrested two years ago - for the alleged diversion of funds from the Barcelona Provincial Council to the entity he presides over, the

convergent foundation

-.

Throughout 2017, Terradellas made several trips to Moscow to gain Russia's support for Catalan independence, although he has always defended that he was acting "on his own."

Now the content has become known several conversations that he himself recorded with businessmen Xavier Vendrell and David Madí in May 2018. In them, Terradellas assures that the head of the "Russian group" with which he speaks offered Puigdemont on October 24, 2017 (three days before the declaration of independence)

However, in the words of Terradellas, the then

(he shit in his pants).

The judge affirms that, had Puigdemont accepted the offer, "the events would probably have been tragic and would have triggered an armed conflict in the State with an uncertain number of fatalities."

In those phone calls, Terradellas also says that the Russians

VENDRELL, MADÍ AND CRYPTOCURRENCY

Xavier Vendrell (San Juan Despí, 1966) is one of the main investigated.

His past is dark.

Between 1989 and 1991, as he acknowledged before a judge, he was a member of

, a terrorist organization of an independence character in whose name he assumed to have planted two bombs without victims: in 1989 against an INEM headquarters in Hospitalet de Llobregat and in 1990 against the company Hydroelectric Forces of the Segre in Olesa de Montserrat.

He avoided jail after paying a bail of 500,000 pesetas.

Terra Lliure ended up dissolving and Justice did not condemn Vendrell.

Member of the political arm of the band (Catalunya Lliure), Vendrell ended up joining ERC.

And in its structure, he grew up to become, for a few days, a councilor of the Interior of the tripartite of

, from where he starred in an important controversy when it was learned that he had sent letters to the public officials of ERC forcing them to pay party fees and denounce those did not do so under threat of removal.

The investigation accumulates evidence against this independence businessman in multiple fields: it also accuses him of influence peddling and enriching himself through concessions and public favors to his companies, and even of driving without a license and of trying to endorse the infractions on his father.

Víctor Terradellas (Reus, 1962).

President of the CATMón foundation and former head of international relations at Convergència.

Link to the "Russian group".

Xavier Vendrell (San Juan Despí, 1966).

Businessman and former 'councilor' of the tripartite with ERC.

Supposed 'father' of the idea of ​​cryptocurrencies and organizer of the Tsunami Democràtic.

Oriol Soler (Ripollet, 1969).

Businessman in the communication sector and founder of the newspaper 'Ara'.

According to the judge, he coordinated with Assange a disinformation strategy.

David Madí (Barcelona, ​​1971).

Businessman and former advisor to Artur Mas.

Present in the cryptocurrency project and alleged organizer of the Democràtic Tsunami.

Vendrell would also be one of the organizers of

, the supposedly anonymous and apolitical movement that, through social networks and mobile applications, generated serious disturbances in Catalonia after the judgment of the

two years ago.

In this accusation he is accompanied by

, the great independence strategist, son of the Catalan bourgeoisie and consultant today relocated to the head of Aigües de Catalunya.

The person who, they say, converted Artur Mas to secessionism, and a man with a good entrance and friends in Madrid's business elite.

The two were also together in the cryptocurrency project, according to the investigations.

Although Vendrell is the one who the judge attributes the initiative in a circumstantial way, as he would have suggested to Madí that he comment with

- another of those investigated, whom Puigdemont "makes commissions on international issues" - the creation of this platform.

The objective: for the Generalitat to guarantee its "financial stability" and avoid "state control over capital movements."

Terradellas had been working with the Russians on that plan since late 2017 or early 2018. And who was going to execute it?

The Civil Guard affirms that Vendrell and Madí intended to create

that would be "specialized in counter-espionage" and in "the development of the cryptocurrency platform."

This is what the protagonists of this story spoke about in May 2018: the platform, it seems, was "accepted by the Generalitat", and in exchange for its help, Russia demanded "

beneficial legislation

."

It also appears in the telephone calls that Puigdemont was maintaining contacts to establish new banks and even to buy an existing one with a marked pro-independence bias: the

Beyond that, Vendrell's conversations are a mine.

In them he assures that Puigdemont told him that

had to be made president even

if it was free.

Today, former ERC deputy

is credited with this phrase: "The day you go out, Xavier, we are all dead."

THE DANGEROUS UNIT GRU-29155

For now, the identities of that "Russian group" that had contact with Puigdemont's squires are unknown.

What is known, as a result of another case opened in the National Court, is that

called GRU-29155 allegedly operated in Catalonia in those decisive months.

That unit is suspected of participating in several destabilization campaigns in Europe, such as

, and has been linked to the poisoning in the United Kingdom of former Russian spy

and his daughter Yulia, and to a frustrated coup in Montenegro in 2016.

The secret investigations of the National Court focus on one of the components of that unit, a high-ranking intelligence officer of Vladimir Putin named

, alias

traveled to Barcelona for six days in November 2016 and returned again for the referendum.

On September 29, 2017, the same day that the spy left Moscow for El Prat, another plane took off from the Russian airport with the same address and a passenger inside: Víctor Terradellas.

So far, Terradellas has admitted at least his contacts with one other Russian citizen:

an influential former pro-government deputy.

Markov has assured that he met three times with the Catalan in Moscow in autumn 2017, and that the latter offered him recognition of the Russian annexation of

by the Generalitat if Putin supported the independence of Catalonia, something that Russia rejected because, as he said, they did not need Catalan support for this.

SOLER, ASSANGE AND THE 'FAKE NEWS'

The name of

, omnipresent communication entrepreneur in Catalonia, recipient of large public subsidies and one of the main ideologues of the

gains strength in the new investigations related to the disinformation campaigns of the independence movement.

Soler is placed on two important dates.

The first is an alleged trip by the Catalan editor to

five months before the referendum, on May 5, 2017. The other refers to November 9, 2017: that day, Oriol Soler traveled to London and interviewed the controversial Wikileaks founder

at the Ecuadorian embassy, ​​where the Australian activist was living asylum.

After their meeting, Assange, an idol of the left and very well connected with Russia, launched one of his inflammatory tweets in favor of Catalan secession.

The investigating judge

frames that meeting "in the strategy of disinformation and destabilization in which the Kremlin Government would also have participated as part of its general narrative on a European Union on the brink of collapse."

That was the main message of the media controlled by Putin: the digital

and the Sputnik agency, whose editor,

is also the editor of Assange.

According to the magistrate, Soler and Assange activated a coordinated strategy using social networks -including Assange's tweets and those of activist

, the aforementioned Russian media and, in addition, “the Catalan media, both public and private , in which Oriol Soler participates ».

The false messages spread and replicated so many times: that the worst violence in Europe since the Second World War was experienced on October 1, or that Spain does not respect the basic freedoms to vote.

THE ROURES AFFAIR

In Víctor Terradellas's conversations in May 2018, a matter related to "communication" also appears.

The "Russian group" with which he deals, he says, wants to "participate in the communication issues" that, "jointly, Xavier Vendrell, David Madí and Jaume Roures were doing."

"To do this," says the judge, "they wanted to place, along with the above, a person in the first level, and they were willing to invest between

."

What projects were those?

Only a couple more details are added in the judge's files.

On the one hand, it is indicated that Vendrell was interested in Oriol Soler taking part "in an audiovisual project directed by

" because "TV3 cannot lead it while its top management is charged."

"If he gets the participation of Oriol Soler, he could convince Jaume Roures."

In this sense, the judge also considers it “relevant” that

, Roures partner at Mediapro, “had called David Madí to explain the financing problems of the

[TV3's parent company] and that he had spoken with Castellanos to find a solution for the payment of the 800,000 euros requested by Mediapro for a documentary about the

».

This week, the Russian Embassy in Spain has mocked the police investigation.

The pro-independence press has also questioned its seriousness and has even described the judicial account as ridiculous.

In one of the intervened conversations Xavier Vendrell is heard saying:

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Catalonia

• Referendum in Catalonia

• Carles puigdemont

• Russia

'Procés' The detainees boasted that Russia came to offer 10,000 soldiers to Carles Puigdemont to turn Catalonia into a 'Switzerland'

'Procés' Víctor Terradellas, Carles Puigdemont's connection with the 'Russian plot'

Courts "Puigdemont has told me that Sánchez must be made president even if it is free"

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