Catalan separatists: Putin’s European back door?

New investigations are intended to clarify the Catalan separatists’ close contacts with Moscow, but also with right-wing extremists in Germany and Italy. This emerges from a court file that… SWR and international partners.

On October 27, 2017, the then Catalan Prime Minister Carles Puigdemont declared independence in Barcelona. Spain was facing one of the biggest crises in its democracy. But what few knew at the time: According to the investigation report, the separatist leader is said to have received a Putin envoy at his home behind closed doors just a day before.

Spanish investigative judge Joaquín Aguirre has now detailed how close the contacts between Moscow and the separatists were in a new investigative report SWRthe Spanish newspaper El Periódico and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

There are new findings about connections with “people of Russian, German and Italian nationality”, some of whom held diplomatic posts, “relations with the Russian secret services” or with right-wing extremist parties. Their interest is in establishing “political and economic relations” with an independent Catalonia, which would destabilize the European Union, Aguirre concludes.

Further joint research by the SWR, by El Periódico and the OCCRP show how close the Catalan separatists around Puigdemont and Russia apparently were. Among other things, chat protocols between close advisors to Puigdemont were evaluated in the critical period before and after his release from prison in Germany on April 6, 2018.

Catalonia as Putin’s crypto bank

The chat logs available to the research team show that the Catalan separatists had been making specific efforts to establish contacts with Russian businessmen since January 2018 at the latest. Shortly before Puigdemont’s release from prison, separatists exchanged views on the possible amount of payments to be expected. On March 10th it was said in a chat: The separatists would receive 56 Bitcoins, or an amount of 425,000 euros. Where exactly these sums are supposed to come from is not clear from the chat.

Bitcoin payments by Russia to Catalan separatists are also a concern for investigative judges Joaquin Aguirre. The court attaches to its brief a manuscript from a close confidant of the Catalan separatist leader Puigdemont: It is apparently a sketch of a new economic model based on Bitcoins, in which the name “Putin” plays a prominent role.

According to previous reports by El Periódico and the OCCRP, in 2017, a “Putin emissary” was said to have offered the Catalans several billion dollars during a trip to Barcelona to support their efforts for the region’s independence. In return, Catalonia should become the “Switzerland of cryptocurrency” for the Russians. Independence should also be supported militarily; a Russian group has offered separatist leader Puigdemont 10,000 soldiers – which, according to media reports, he is said to have rejected.

Ideology close to Russia in the spirit of Putin?

From the past few months of SWRChats evaluated by El Periódico and OCCRP show that when it comes to geopolitical questions, at least two of Puigdemont’s close advisors are apparently in favor of an ideology close to Russia in the spirit of Putin, which is otherwise aggressively advocated in Europe, especially in right-wing extremist circles.

In January 2018, a close confidant of Puigdemont initially discussed the geopolitical situation with the movement’s foreign policy spokesman at the time in these chats. They note that Europe would not move on the Catalonia issue “without a threat from an external power.”

Specifically, the chats express their desire to stop a planned natural gas pipeline from Spain to France (MIDCAT), which would make Europe more independent from Russia. An internal draft of Catalan foreign policy then states: Russia could “pay Catalonia an annual amount to prevent the development of MIDCAT.” In response to a request from SWR The foreign policy spokesman has not yet responded.

The rest of the chat is about a so-called new world order. The view expressed: Whoever dominates Asia dominates the world, it’s about the role of China, about replacing the global raw materials trade from the US dollar and about the political axis “Iran/China/Russia”. In Moscow they discussed “the variant of a geographical Europe” under a “Russian-German alliance”. The name Alexander Dugin also comes up here.

Franziska Davies, Russia expert at the University of Munich, looked at excerpts from the chat logs and said: SWR: “It is very disturbing that Catalan separatists are so glorifying a far-right ideologue who supports Putin’s imperialist war.”

In his written statement, investigating judge Aguirre also states that Puigdemont’s advisors had agreed that the former Catalan president, who lives in exile in Belgium, should under no circumstances criticize Putin’s attitude towards the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny or the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. According to Aguirre’s assessment, this is a clear indication of “contacts with high-ranking Kremlin leaders.”

Traces also lead to Germany

When it comes to the question of the financing of the separatists, the research is moving away SWR, El Periódico and OCCRP brought an account in Germany to light. It was set up by Puigdemont’s alleged financial strategist, Jaume Cabani, at an online bank in October 2017, a few days before the Catalan Parliament’s unilateral declaration of independence. He gave the bank the Belgian city of Waterloo as his address.

Puigdemont and several other separatists fled to Belgium a few days after the account was opened, including Cabani. As a result, more than 350,000 euros were paid into the account in Germany.

Compared to the SWR Cabani explained that he had created the account for personal use to avoid Spanish prosecution of Catalan democrats and referendum participants, as well as “to avoid being exposed to harassment of public image and abuse of police and judicial institutions.” When asked where the money came from, Cabani replied: “The money in the account came from his own assets and from small donors.”

According to available documents, Cabani’s deposits rank fourth, while the largest deposits came from three independence-supporting organizations. At around 70,000 euros, most of the payments fall into the legal and litigation costs category, but leading representatives of the separatist movement also received payments in the four-digit range.

Provoke a dispute between Spain and Germany?

The date the account was opened immediately before the unconstitutional Declaration of Independence is an indication that criminal prosecution was expected and an escape was apparently planned beforehand. A possible strategic goal: The dispute between Spain and Germany over the arrest and later release of Puigdemont was intended to cause trouble in the EU and discredit the Spanish legal system – at least that is how the corresponding shared comments in the chats can be understood. Cabani told this SWRAs far as he knew, nothing of the kind was planned.

The bank has been under the supervision of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) since 2021. “The reasons for our order were deficits in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing,” a spokesman told the SWR. Defects were discovered in the identification and verification of customers. For reasons of confidentiality, BaFin is not allowed to provide any further information about ongoing investigations into individual accounts.

Concern in Brussels

The investigating judge’s report could put the Spanish head of government in trouble. The socialist Pedro Sánchez paid dearly for his re-election last November – he promised an amnesty for his support of the separatists. This Tuesday there will be a vote in Parliament.

When asked, a spokesman for the EU Commission said that the Catalonia issue remained an internal matter for Spain. But they would remain in contact with the Spanish authorities to determine whether the amnesty was compatible with EU law and the fundamental values ​​enshrined in the Treaty, particularly with regard to the rule of law.

“I think an amnesty for the separatist leader Puigdemont is dangerous,” explains MEP Viola von Cramon from the Greens. Last year, together with other parliamentarians, she presented an analysis of the influence of foreign dictatorships in Europe: “Putin is using every strategy, no matter how small, to destabilize Europe.” People in Europe are far too naive to recognize what Russian infiltration has already happened. It is time for there to be real cooperation between the secret services at the EU level.

The separatist leader and MEP Puigdemont has not yet responded to inquiries from the SWR.