The judge investigating the "Volhov case" of alleged diversion of funds to the

procés

has summoned Russian businessman Alexander Dmitrenko to testify as under investigation, whom a report from the Civil Guard places as a link to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in Russia.

In an order, the head of the court of instruction number 1 of Barcelona, ​​Joaquín Aguirre, has summoned the businessman to testify for next May 31, as confirmed by EFE.

Civil Guard reports on the "Volhov case" link Dmitrenko to an oil purchase operation between Russian and Chinese companies investigated by the court for possible illegal financing and point out that the businessman was key in the alleged contacts between Puigdemont's environment and the Kremlin in search of support for the procés.

The judge has charged the businessman, whom he suspects may be related to the Russian intelligence services, for having facilitated the contacts in Russia of Josep Lluís Alay, head of Puigdemont's office and who is also being investigated in the "Volhov case".

Between March 2019 and February 2020, Alay held at least five meetings with Russian contacts: three in Moscow, one in Barcelona and one in Geneva in June 2019, where Puigdemont also met Dmitrenko.

In addition, the Civil Guard maintains that the people who made possible the oil purchase operation investigated by the judge would belong to the companies of Dmitrenko, who had founded the Catalan-Russian 'lobby' Catrus and was general director of the entity Hispaniapetrol.

In that business, Artem Lukoyanov, adopted son of Vlasilav Shurkov, nicknamed the 'grey cardinal', an influential former personal adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, would have allegedly intervened.

The judge found similarities between that sale and purchase operation and another carried out by Russia in favor of a company linked to the leader of the Northern League Matteo Salvini and which served to illegally finance the Italian far-right formation.

The Prosecutor's Office, however, opposes the line of investigation opened by the judge on the alleged Russian connection to the procés and asked to file the case against Alay, considering the case opened against him for the sale of oil "prospective".

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  • Matteo Salvini

  • Vladimir Putin

  • Carles Puigdemont

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