exclusive
A well-known Russian journalist and blogger has appeared several times in investigations into possible Russian influence on Catalan separatists. SWR-Research revealed that he also had contacts with the AfD.
For years, Spanish authorities have been investigating the Catalan separatists’ alleged links to Russia. For several months, they have also been looking into their links to right-wing circles in Europe. According to new SWR-Research has revealed two photos that show traces to both Russia and Germany.
One of the photos shows a group of AfD MPs on their trip to the Russian-occupied Crimea in 2018. The German government sharply criticized the visit at the time, and Ukraine threatened the participants with criminal consequences. The organizer of the trip was the then AfD MP Roger Beckamp, a press spokesman for the NRW parliamentary group told SWRAccording to media reports, Roger Beckamp said in a TV interview at the time that Crimea was not occupied by the Russians, but was now part of Russia again.
Who is Edvard Chesnokov?
When asked, Beckamp, who today sits in the Bundestag for the AfD, did not want to remember the photo or the name of the person at the table, who was allegedly unknown to him: Edvard Chesnokov. However, AfD Bundestag member Eugen Schmidt, who is holding an AfD flag in the background of the photo, remembers the man. “At the time, he was a journalist at Komsomolskaya Pravda,” Schmidt told the SWRThe pro-government tabloid newspaper, also called Putin’s “favorite newspaper,” is the newspaper with the largest reach in Russia.
Chesnokov is also a radio host and blogger. On his Telegram channel with more than 14,000 followers, he deals intensively with German domestic politics. After the photo with the AfD representatives and shortly before the state elections in Bavaria and Hesse, a video of Chesnokov went viral on Telegram. In it, accompanied by dramatic music, he calls on German and German-Russian voters to vote for the AfD in order to prevent an alleged impending war between Russia and Germany.
In May 2022, Chesnokov announced Olga Petersen, a current non-factional AfD member of the Hamburg Parliament, as a guest speaker at an event about his candidacy in the Russian primaries as a member of the ruling United Russia party.
Confronted with the photo showing him with the AfD MPs, Chesnokov replied to the SWR in writing that it was taken in a cafe at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. The reason: an interview with the AfD MPs about their trip. “Imagine a similar situation: in 1990 a Russian delegation comes to East Berlin to observe the reunification of Germany – the same reunification that Crimea experienced with Russia in 2014 – would you turn this delegation away or welcome them and report on it?” he says in his statement.
On the agenda: Catalan independence
Catalan independence is also apparently at the top of Chesnokov’s agenda. On the profile page of his newspaper’s online presence, Chesnokov lists his most important journalistic achievement as being the first Russian journalist to interview Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont in 2019 after he fled into exile in Belgium.
Puigdemont himself later wrote in Komsomolskaya Pravda about the goal of Catalan independence. Conversely, Chesnokov published more than 20 articles in the Catalan-language newspaper El Punt Avui.
Just two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Chesnokov wrote about the situation in eastern Ukraine: “After the nationalist coup in Ukraine in 2014, the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which were formerly home to ethnic Russians, declared their independence after a series of armed clashes.” The basis for this “act of independence” was a referendum similar to that of the Catalan separatists in 2017.
Explosive chats
From documents in which the SWR According to information obtained by the Spanish intelligence service, Spanish investigators came across the name Chesnokov in chats between close advisers of Puigdemont – apparently an important contact for the separatists to secure the support of the Russians. Puigdemont’s advisers agreed to brief Puigdemont to consistently follow the line of the Russian leadership. Topics such as the sanctions against Russia must be avoided. It is important not to anger the Russians, whom the advisers describe as “friends”.
A planned interview with Puigdemont in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda was also discussed in the chats. An adviser to the separatist leader stressed that Chesnokov was “his journalist” in Moscow, with a particularly wide reach. Chesnokov explained to the SWRthat he had never met Puigdemont in person or communicated with him directly. He had also never been to Barcelona or Brussels himself. The interview took place via email.
The Spanish investigators are also concerned about another photo in which Chesnokov can be seen. According to Chesnokov himself, it was taken in spring 2019 in Moscow during a lecture at a university. The lecture was given by a close advisor to Puigdemont. In the photo, he is sitting between Chesnokov and a Russian businessman from Barcelona. According to Spanish security authorities, this man had contact with a Russian secret service. Chesnokov himself described the businessman’s role to SWR as follows: “He helps to legally collect debts.”
Use of journalists as part of the Russian strategy?
According to internal documents obtained by the Spanish security authorities, SWR However, the Russian businessman was considered proven to be a Russian spy with contacts to Russian organized crime. The businessman himself denied the allegations on SWR-Request.
Gerhard Conrad is a former BND agent and was most recently director of INCENT, the EU Intelligence Analysis Centre. He does not rule out that Russian secret service agents are deliberately using journalists for their own purposes. SWR he said: “Using a journalist legend makes sense from an intelligence perspective, if only because they are professionally required to establish contacts.” Chesnokov denied any connection to Russian intelligence services: “This is a ridiculous deception based on someone’s paranoia.”
End of investigation looms
Spanish investigators would like to clarify exactly what role Russia played in the declaration of independence. But critics fear that the amnesty law for Catalan separatists, which Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pushed through in parliament to secure his left-wing coalition government, could soon mean that the investigations could be stopped.
A spokesman for the Civic Platform for Judicial Independence (PCIJ) tells the SWR: “The amnesty law violates the most fundamental principles of our constitutional system. It is an illegal exchange of impunity for votes.”
Intelligence experts warn that the law could encourage Russia to continue to carry out operations such as the alleged influence on Catalan separatists.
EPP leader criticises Spanish amnesty law
The Spanish amnesty law is also viewed with concern in Brussels. The chairman of the EPP group, Manfred Weber, calls in an interview with SWRthe EU Commission must take this seriously: “Amnesty should be […] never be part of a power game, but based on legal considerations.” There is sufficient evidence “of the links between Carles Puigdemont’s party and the Russian FSB, formerly the KGB, which are being investigated by the Spanish courts.” Catalonia is part of a broader Russian strategy to destabilize the EU.
The Spanish government had a SWR-Request for criticism of their amnesty law remained unanswered. Observers expect that the EPP’s victory in the European elections could now put the socialist Prime Minister Sánchez under pressure.
Separatist leader Puigdemont and his adviser took part in questions of SWR after connections to the AfD and the Russian journalist Chesnokov.