Russian Meddling in Catalonia: A Playbook In Destabilization

A mysterious Russian offers Catalonia’s president $500 billion and 10,000 armed soldiers to make the break from Spain and create a cryptocurrency haven. This in the days running up to an historic vote to declare independence from Spain.

In this episode, Nick Wallis talks with journalists Antonio Baquero, Marc Marginedas and Lorenzo Bagnoli on how they tracked down the man pro-independence leaders called “Putin’s envoy” across Spain, Italy, and Russia — unveiling his past as a Russian diplomat with a history of representing the Kremlin.

We also hear from Institute for Statecraft senior fellow Nico de Pedro on how Russia used Catalonia’s independence movement in an attempt to destabilize Spain, as well as how ordinary Catalans felt when interference from the Kremlin was revealed.

Dirty Deeds is a Little Gem production for OCCRP. The host is Nick Wallis. The producers were Lindsay Riley and Ollie Peart, with research from Phoebe Adler-Ryan and Riham Moussa, at Rethink Audio.

Read the investigation:

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/fueling-secession-promising-bitcoins-how-a-russian-operator-urged-catalonian-leaders-to-break-with-madrid

This week’s guests

Antonio Baquero - @antoniobaqueroiMarc Marginedas - @marcmarginedasLorenzo Bagnoli - @Lorenzo_BagnoliNico de Pedro - @nicolasdepedro

Transcript

Read the transcript on the OCCRP website.

More Information on OCCRP

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