135
Martin Arostegui, Officials Russia Seeking to Exploit Catalonia Secessionist Movement
VOA News, Nov. 24, 2017.
771
Ibid. 772
Ibid. 773
U.S. Department of State, Report to Congress on Efforts by the Russian Federation to Undermine Elections in Europe and Eurasia Pursuant to the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act of 2017 (PL. 115-44), Nov. 7, 2017.
774
Itxu Diaz, Venezuela and Russia Teamed Up to Push Pro-Catalan Fake News
The Daily Beast, Nov. 28, 2017. David Alandete, ‘‘Pro-Russian Networks See 2,000% Increase in Activity in Favor of Catalan Referendum
El Pais, Oct. 1, 2017. Catalan police.
770
However, the appointment was rescinded when intelligence services based in Madrid
presented evidence that Crespo was involved in money laundering, and in 2014 he was indicted for accepting bribes from Petrov.
771
The CiU also allegedly received funds laundered by Russian crime syndicates through
Catalonian banks and shell companies.
772
A faction of the CiU joined with two leftist parties to form the coalition that held the referendum on October 1, 2017 for
Catalonia’s independence from Spain. The referendum was driven by decades-long domestic political, cultural, and economic issues, but it also presented Moscow with an opportunity to promote an outcome that would weaken a major EU state. And there is now an increasingly large body of evidence
showing that the Kremlin, at least through its state-run media outlets, directed a significant disinformation campaign targeting the referendum. The US. State Department reported that Russian state news outlets, such as Sputnik, published a number of articles in the run up to the poll that highlighted alleged corruption within the Spanish government and driving an overarching anti-EU narrative in support of the secessionist movement. These Russian newsagencies, as well as Russian users on Twitter, also repeatedly promoted
the views of Julian Assange, the founder of
WikiLeaks, who has taken to social media to call for Spanish authorities to respect the upcoming vote in Catalonia. Spanish newspapers have also reported that Russian bots attempted to flood social media with controversial posts in support of Catalonian independence prior to the ref- erendum.
773
One analysis looked at more than five million social media messages on Catalonia posted between September 29 and October 5, and found that 30 percent of the messages came from anonymous accounts that exclusively post content from
RT and Sputnik, while
25 percent came from bots and 10 percent from the official accounts of the two propaganda platforms.
774
Another analysis found that, just before the referendum took place, pro-Kremlin Twitter accounts increased their mentions of the Catalan crisis by 2,000 per- cent.
775
The Kremlin’s interests in Catalonia’s referendum were likely varied. First, Moscow has recently favored independence and secessionist movements that occur beyond Russia’s borders and weaken the EU. For example,
before Brexit, Kremlin-linked disinformation campaigns were pro-Scottish independence. But after the UK decided not to be in the EU, and many voters in Scotland indicated
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136 Chris Green, Russia Set to U-turn on Support for Scottish Independence
The Scotsman, May 11, 2017. William Booth & Michael Birnbaum, British and Spanish Leaders Say Russian Trolls Meddled in Their Elections
The Washington Post, Nov. 14, 2017. Martin Arostegui, Officials Russia Seeking to Exploit Catalonia Secessionist Movement
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