In another attempt to change the political landscape of Europe, Russia has engaged their state-supported media in publishing news stories about crises in Spain. With a main goal of dividing European countries due to Russia’s anti-globalization approach, Russia has been sparking conversation about Catalonia by publishing news stories on the crisis in Russian, English and German.
An ongoing issue in Spain is the potential succession of Catalonia from Spain. This region has its own parliament, police force, health and education systems that have helped Spain grow a great deal economically. Succession of Catalonia could hurt Spain and therefore bring instability throughout Europe and the EU.
Pictured to the right are the results of the October 1st Catalan referendum. It shows that the majority of the region did not vote and the second largest majority voted in favor of independence. The media’s coverage of this dispute could be a leading factor in the results of this vote. Even if the potential split from Spain hasn’t divided the country, it definitely has divided the countries media between stories supporting or against Catalan independence.
Examples of these Russian new stories can be seen on Kremlin-controlled TV networks such as RT and Sputnik. RT has published 42 articles regarding the Catalonian crisis since late August of this year. Some of the titles of these stories are The European Union will respect the independence of Catalonia and State of siege: Catalan officials, including vice-minister of economy, arrested over referendum papers. Some of these news stories are shown in the image below.
On Twitter, Voices of Europe (V_of_Europe) has been posting tweets sharing the same ideas as these pro-Kremlin news outlets regarding Catalonia. An example of these tweets are “Spain BOILS: EU REFUSES to act for Catalonia despite Spain ‘violating basic human rights.” El Pais, a Spanish news outlet, has published many stories about the Russian coverage of Catalonia such as Russian Meddling Machine Sets Sights on Catalonia and How Russian news networks are using Catalonia to destabilize Europe.
These Russian news outlets are advising that Catalonia should split from the Spain in hopes of other European nations following. It appears that mostly pro-Putin and Kremlin funded news outlets are publishing these stories about Catalonia that are promoting European independence. Many other news outlets see that the main reason Russian news outlets are covering this story because Russia is in favor of independence and have frequently been attempting to disrupt the economy and politics of other European nations.