Between March 2019 and February 2020, Josep Lluis Alay, a senior advisor to former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, travelled to Moscow three times to meet with several people connected to the Russian government and intelligence community. According to a European intelligence report reviewed by the New York Times, the aim of these meetings was to secure the Kremlin’s support for the independence movement in Catalonia. Both Alay and Puigdemont confirmed that the trips occurred. In March 2019, accompanied by Alexander Dmitrenko, who was refused Spanish citizenship due to his ties to Russian intelligence, Alya met Sergei Sumin, a colonel of Putin’s personal security detail. Alay also met Edvard Chesnokov, deputy editor of the international section of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s second largest daily newspaper who Spanish outlet El Confidencial describes as “a key player in the Kremlin’s propaganda during the invasion of Ukraine”. In June 2019, Alay and Dmitrenko met with Andrei Bezrukov, a former officer of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Alay also met with Evgeni Primakov, a former member of the State Duma for Putin’s party and the grandson of a former head of the SVR. In June 2020, Primakov was appointed by Putin as head of Rossotrudnichestvo, a government agency under Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tied to Russia’s global influence campaigns. In the months that followed, Puigdemont was interviewed by state media outlets Russia 24, Russia Today, and Sputnik. According to El Confidencial, Alay also met with Arkady Seregin, an advisor to the Russian Ministry of Energy linked to the SVR.