Russia seeks to use Catalonia as a wedge
The EU foreign ministers and NATO are both digesting mounting evidence that Russia played a part in the extraordinary events in Catalonia over the past two months, wherein separatists attempted first to hold an illegal “referendum”, financed with misappropriated taxpayer funds, and then made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).
Mira Milosevich, a senior analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute, a government-backed research institute in Madrid said the “dezinformatsiya” campaign deployed trolls, bots and fake accounts, and was backed by intense coverage from Russia’s state-supported television, according to Bloomberg. Milosovechic said the most significant comments spread on Twitter and Facebook came from WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and government-secrets leaker Edward Snowden, Milosevich said, particularly that the “banana republic” of Spain used violence to suffocate a democratic vote. Assange had little or no previous profile in this issue.
One report says an Assange tweets calling for international support for Catalonia's "self-determination" was being re-tweeted 66 times per second just one minute after he had posted it.
The commander of NATO forces in Europe, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, on Thursday demanded Russia "stop meddling" in European elections, amid concerns about Kremlin interference in the Catalan crisis.
"It is something that we've seen in the United States, we've seen it in a number of countries here in the elections of late," Scaparrotti said when asked about claims of Russian interference in Catalonia.
"It should stop meddling in other nations, (in) what is their sovereign right to determine their government and how it works," he told reporters at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels. Link.
Carles Puigdemont, the President of the Catalan Assembly, called and organized a referendum on independence for Catalonia despite having the support of less than half of the voters in the region. He is accused of misappropriating millions of euros of taxpayer’s funds to pay for it. Millions were also spent on a pro-independence propaganda campaign to accompany the referendum, but no provision was made for a campaign presenting the other side of the story. All of this was done in defiance of the Spanish Constitutional Court. Despite all these irregularities, Puigdemont was emboldened to tell the international community that the results of the referendum would be considered binding.
In response, the Spanish courts — not the government in Madrid — sent in police to stop the “referendum”. Violence ensued. However, it now emerges that the reports of widespread wanton brutality by the police were exaggerated.
Carles Puigdemont subsequently orchestrated a UDI, in violation of not only the Spanish Constitution but also the procedural rules of the regional assembly that he heads. Several of his colleagues have been arrested and charged with public order offenses and theft. When the hoped-for mass civil disobedience in support of the UDI failed to materialize, Puigdemont himself ran away to Belgium.
Over 15,000 Catalans have lost their jobs since the chaos started. Over 2,000 corporations have moved their official headquarters out of Catalonia so that they can be ready to flee in earnest if need be. And tourism — a major industry — is down by double digits.
