Spanish law enforcement authorities have begun investigating the information related to the illegal meddling of Russia with the Catalonian separatists related to the 2017 attempt to vote for independence from Spain, reports Deutsche Welle.
Numerous facts collected by the Spanish intelligence services became the basis for the investigation. The judge of the Barcelona court, Joaquin Aguirre, believes that the Russian Federation gave encouragement to the separatists.
There are 11 Catalan politicians and officials are identified as suspects, including the current leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, and his closest associates. Aguirre added that the Russian Federation wants to destabilize the European Union politically and economically, and the Kremlin is making similar attempts in other countries.
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
The referendum, known in the Spanish media by the numeronym 1-O (for “1 October”), was declared unconstitutional on 7 September 2017 and suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain after a request from the Spanish government, who declared it a breach of the Spanish Constitution.
