Bronca Puigdemont's contacts with Russia stress the Catalan Government
The former
president
of the Generalitat
Carles Puigdemont
met with men who presented themselves as envoys from the Russian government at the
Casa dels Canonges,
his official residence, on the eve of 1-O.
The main of his interlocutors was an emissary of
Vladimir Putin,
Nikolai Sadovnikov,
according to an international investigation led by OCCRP, in which the only Spanish media outlet that has participated is
El Periódico.
"This emissary was described in private by the Catalan independence leaders themselves as
"Putin's envoy",
this medium affirms. The former Soviet and Russian diplomat had a long history of representing the
Kremlin
in sensitive conflict areas and had been noticed by al least one Western intelligence agency, which said it had a direct line to the Russian head of state," the post continues.
Keir Giles,
a Russia expert at the British think tank
Chatham House,
said that "if Russia weakens another country by eroding people's faith in institutions, delegating their regions, challenging their constitution, their democratic processes, their legal systems, So by comparison, Russia by default becomes stronger," he said.
Text messages obtained by journalists, as well as an interview with a person present at the meeting, reveal that
the Russians demanded that Catalonia pass crypto-friendly legislation
in exchange for their support.
In exchange, the Russians
promised to give Catalonia $500 billion to help in its bid for independence,
a figure that doesn't sound credible.
After 1-O, a representative of the Russians continued to promise funds to support the separatists.
Most of his promises did not seem real, says OCCRP, although on one occasion the Catalans received a bitcoin, worth just
under $10,000 at the time.
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