Married Kremlin spies, a shadowy mission to Moscow and unrest in Catalonia

In the spring of 2019, an emissary of Catalonia’s prime separatist chief traveled to Moscow in quest of a political lifeline.
The independence motion in Catalonia, the semiautonomous area in Spain’s northeast, had been largely crushed after a referendum on breaking away two years earlier. The European Union and the United States, which supported Spain’s effort to maintain the nation intact, had rebuffed the separatists’ pleas for assist.

But in Russia, a door was opening.
In Moscow, the emissary, Josep Lluis Alay, a senior adviser to the self-exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, met with present Russian officers, former intelligence officers and the well-connected grandson of a KGB spymaster. The intention was to safe Russia’s assist in severing Catalonia from the remainder of Spain, in keeping with a European intelligence report, which was reviewed by The New York Times.
Asked in regards to the report’s findings, each Alay and Puigdemont confirmed the journeys to Moscow, which have by no means been reported, however insisted they have been a part of common outreach to international officers and journalists. Alay mentioned any suggestion that he was looking for Russian help was “a fantasy story created by Madrid.”
 
Catalan chief Carles Puigdemont . (AP Photo/File)
But different confidential paperwork point out that Russia was a central preoccupation between Alay and Puigdemont.
For Russia, outreach to the separatists would match President Vladimir Putin’s technique of attempting to sow disruption within the West by supporting divisive political actions. In Italy, secret audio recordings revealed a Russian plot to covertly finance the hard-right League social gathering. In Britain, a Times investigation uncovered discussions amongst right-wing fringe figures about opening financial institution accounts in Moscow. And in Spain, the Russians have additionally supplied help to far-right events, in keeping with the intelligence report.
Whether Alay knew it or not, lots of the officers he met in Moscow are concerned in what has grow to be often known as the Kremlin’s hybrid struggle in opposition to the West. This is a layered technique involving propaganda and disinformation, covert financing of disruptive political actions, hacking and leaking data (as occurred within the 2016 U.S. presidential election) and “active measures” like assassinations meant to erode the steadiness of Moscow’s adversaries.
It is unclear what assist, if any, the Kremlin has supplied to the Catalan separatists. But Alay’s journeys to Moscow in 2019 have been adopted rapidly by the emergence of a secretive protest group, Tsunami Democratic, which disrupted operations at Barcelona’s airport and lower off a significant freeway linking Spain to northern Europe. A confidential police report by Spain’s Guardia Civil, obtained by The Times, discovered that Alay was concerned within the creation of the protest group.
 
People wave “estelada” or professional independence flags exterior the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona, Spain, after Catalonia’s regional parliament handed a movement with which they are saying they’re establishing an impartial Catalan Republic, Friday, Oct. 27, 2017. (File/AP)
A secret 700-page transcript of textual content messages reveals the concerted effort made by Alay and others in Puigdemont’s circle to domesticate ties to Russians with hyperlinks to the nation’s intelligence institution.
“I’m thinking a lot about Russia,” Alay texted Puigdemont on Aug. 23 final 12 months. “And these days it’s all very, very complicated.”
Rumors of Russian involvement in Catalonia first emerged quickly after Puigdemont’s authorities held the independence referendum in October 2017. The referendum handed, overwhelmingly, with anti-separatist voters largely boycotting; Spanish authorities declared it unlawful and imprisoned these political leaders who didn’t flee overseas.
Spanish authorities later decided that operatives from a specialised Russian army intelligence group known as Unit 29155, which has been linked to tried coups and assassinations in Europe, had been current in Catalonia across the time of the referendum, however Spain has supplied no proof that they performed an energetic position.

Many Catalan independence leaders have accused the authorities in Madrid of utilizing the specter of Russian interference to tarnish what they described as a grassroots motion of standard residents. The referendum was supported by a fragile coalition of three political events that rapidly dissolved over disputes about ideology and technique. Even as some events pushed for a negotiated settlement with Madrid, Puigdemont, a former journalist with a Beatles-like mop of hair, has eschewed compromise.
Asked in regards to the Russian outreach, the present Catalan authorities beneath President Pere Aragones distanced itself from Puigdemont.
A person holds up a shawl as a crowd of pro-independence supporters gathers within the sq. exterior the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona, Spain. (AP)
“These trips to Moscow were not taken on behalf of the Catalan government and took place without Pere Aragones’ knowledge,” mentioned Sergi Sabria, Aragones’ spokesperson. “These people are not even part of the president’s party, which is not aware of the agendas of other parties.”
To piece collectively the contacts with Russia, The Times has drawn on the 10-page European intelligence report, the substance of which was confirmed by two Spanish officers; case information from two separate confidential investigations by magistrates in Barcelona and Madrid, which embody the transcript of the texts, however haven’t yielded any fees associated to the Moscow conferences; and interviews with independence politicians and activists in Catalonia, in addition to safety officers in Spain and overseas.
The June 2020 intelligence report mentioned that Alay, along with Alexander Dmitrenko, a Russian businessman, sought monetary and technical help from Russia for the creation of banking, telecommunications and vitality sectors separate from Spain. The pair, together with Puigdemont’s lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, additionally consulted with a pacesetter of a violent Russian felony syndicate, a part of an effort to arrange a secret cash pipeline to fund their actions, the report mentioned.
The textual content messages, taken from Alay’s cellphone when he was briefly arrested in October 2020, assist corroborate parts of the intelligence report.
“We’re working for The Americans,” Alay mentioned at one level, referring to the FX present about deep-cover KGB officers within the United States.
It was no joke. Two of his main contacts in Russia, in keeping with the intelligence report, have been a husband-and-wife group of intelligence officers whose story helped encourage the collection.
‘Good News From Moscow’
The Catalan independence motion had been constructing momentum for a decade however by 2019 had fallen into disarray.
Nine leaders of the motion have been in jail and would quickly be sentenced to lengthy jail phrases for his or her roles within the referendum. (This summer time, all acquired pardons.) Others had fled Spain, together with Puigdemont, who resides in Belgium and is now a member of the European Parliament, whilst he has railed in opposition to the “silence of the main European institutions.”
The European Union declared the Catalan independence referendum unlawful. Russia’s place, in contrast, was extra equivocal. President Vladimir Putin described the Catalan separatist drive as Europe’s comeuppance for supporting independence actions in Eastern Europe after the autumn of the Soviet Union.
“There was a time when they welcomed the collapse of a whole series of governments in Europe, not hiding their happiness about this,” Putin mentioned. “We talk about double standards all the time. There you go.”
In March 2019, Alay traveled to Moscow, simply weeks after leaders of the Catalan independence motion went on trial. Three months later, Alay went once more.
In Russia, in keeping with the intelligence report, Alay and Dmitrenko met with a number of energetic international intelligence officers, in addition to Oleg V. Syromolotov, the previous chief of counterintelligence for the Federal Security Service, Russia’s home intelligence company, who now oversees counterterrorism as a deputy minister on the Russian international ministry.
Alay denied assembly Syromolotov and the officers however acknowledged assembly Yevgeny Primakov, the grandson of a well-known KGB spymaster, in an effort to safe an interview with Puigdemont on a global affairs program he hosted on Kremlin tv. Last 12 months, Primakov was appointed by Putin to run a Russian cultural company that, in keeping with European safety officers, typically serves as a entrance for intelligence operations.
“Good news from Moscow,” Alay later texted to Puigdemont, informing him of Primakov’s appointment. In one other change, Dmitrenko instructed Alay that Primakov’s elevation “puts him in a very good position to activate things between us.”
Alay additionally confirmed assembly Andrei Bezrukov, a embellished former officer with Russia’s international intelligence service. For greater than a decade, Bezrukov and his spouse, Yelena Vavilova, have been deep cowl operatives residing within the United States utilizing the code names Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley.
It was their story of espionage, arrest and eventual return to Russia in a spy swap that served as a foundation for the tv collection “The Americans.” Alay seems to have grow to be shut with the couple. Working with Dmitrenko, he spent about three months within the fall of 2020 on a Catalan translation of Vavilova’s autobiographical novel “The Woman Who Can Keep Secrets,” in keeping with his encrypted correspondence.
Alay, who can be a school professor and creator, mentioned he was invited by Bezrukov, who now teaches at a Moscow college, to ship two lectures.
Alay was accompanied on every of his journeys by Dmitrenko, 33, a Russian businessman who’s married to a Catalan girl. Dmitrenko didn’t reply to requests for remark. But Spanish authorities have monitored him and in 2019 rejected a citizenship utility from him due to his Russian contacts, in keeping with a Spanish Ministry of Justice determination reviewed by The Times.
The determination mentioned Dmitrenko “receives missions” from Russian intelligence and in addition “does different jobs” for leaders of Russian organized crime.
A Political Tsunami
A couple of months after Alay’s journeys to Moscow, Catalonia erupted in protests.
A bunch calling itself Tsunami Democratic occupied the places of work of one in every of Spain’s largest banks, closed a principal freeway between France and Spain for 2 days and orchestrated the takeover of the Barcelona airport, forcing the cancellation of greater than 100 flights.
The group’s origins have remained unclear, however one of many confidential police information said that Alay attended a gathering in Geneva, the place he and different independence activists finalized plans for Tsunami Democratic’s unveiling.
Three days after Tsunami Democratic occupied the Barcelona airport, two Russians flew from Moscow to Barcelona, the Catalan capital, in keeping with flight information obtained by The Times.
One was Sergei Sumin, whom the intelligence report describes as a colonel in Russia’s Federal Protective Service, which oversees safety for Putin and isn’t recognized for actions overseas.
The different was Artyom Lukoyanov, the adopted son of a prime adviser to Putin, one who was deeply concerned in Russia’s efforts to assist separatists in jap Ukraine.
According to the intelligence report, Alay and Dmitrenko met the 2 males in Barcelona for a technique session to debate the independence motion, although the report supplied no different particulars.
Alay denied any connection to Tsunami Democratic. He confirmed that he had met with Sumin and Lukoyanov on the request of Dmitrenko, however solely to “greet them politely.”
Even because the protests light, Puigdemont’s associates remained busy. His lawyer, Boye, flew to Moscow in February 2020 to satisfy Vasily Khristoforov, whom Western regulation enforcement businesses describe as a senior Russian organized crime determine. The objective, in keeping with the report, was to enlist Khristoforov to assist arrange a secret funding channel for the independence motion.
Boye acknowledged assembly in Moscow with Khristoforov, who is needed in a number of nations together with Spain on suspicion of economic crimes, however mentioned they solely mentioned issues referring to Khristoforov’s authorized circumstances.
By late 2020, Alay’s texts reveal an eagerness to maintain his Russian contacts glad. In exchanges with Puigdemont and Boye, he mentioned they need to keep away from any public statements which may anger Moscow, particularly in regards to the democracy protests that Russia was serving to to disperse violently in Belarus.
Puigdemont didn’t at all times head the recommendation, showing in Brussels with the Belarusian opposition and tweeting his assist for the protesters, prompting Boye to textual content Alay that “we will have to tell the Russians that this was just to mislead.”
This article initially appeared in The New York Times.