Marc Marginedas: "There are Russian spies in Barcelona"

BarcelonaMarc Marginedas (Barcelona, ​​​​1967) says that Moscow is his second home. As a correspondent forThe Newspaper He lived through two stages and witnessed how the Russia wounded by the fall of the Soviet Union became the resentful Russia of Vladimir Putin. Now he publishes Russia vs. the world (Peninsula), a magnificent book, the result of extensive research, explaining how the Kremlin has used the darkest and most violent methods to consolidate its power. The subtitle is also compelling: More than two decades of state terrorism, kidnappings, mafia and propagandaMarginedas insists that Putin's regime, with its increasingly imperialist tendencies, operates with a gangster mentality. The Kremlin's tentacles reach far and wide.

He says that anyone who knocks on the Kremlin's door and asks for help will be compromised for life.

— Putin is an expert at blackmail and exploiting the favors he grants. In other words, if the Kremlin supports you at some point, it will eventually get even in some way. This happens, for example, with most large Russian companies: they all owe favors to the Kremlin, which is why Putin coerces and controls them so easily. And it also happens around the world. And this should be a warning to all leaders and political parties who have been tempted to seek support in Russia. And I'm also talking about Junts per Catalunya.

Was Russia interested in supporting the Process?

— Possibly. But not from an ideological point of view. Russia isn't an ideological state; it's a country that acts like a mafia and is capable of presenting a different facade in each case to achieve its objectives. And its main objective, at least in Europe, is to create destabilization and weakness. And it can do this by supporting the Catalan independence movement or the far-right Vox to get them into a government. It doesn't matter.

Who owes Putin favors?

— Marine Le Pen, for example. Her party received money and support from the Kremlin for her election campaign. Putin is sure to have her on his radar in case she ever becomes president. Trump is also on the list, obviously. Not only because of the alleged Russian interference in the first election, but also for more personal reasons. One of Trump's leading financial experts explains that, in 2008, when he was bankrupt, Moscow-based corporations began buying apartments in his towers and saved him from ruin. Perhaps the movements we're seeing these days in the White House, which often go against the United States, are a response to these tolls.

They have said that his book is essential to understanding what Putinism is.

— Putinism is a completely imperialist concept of a nation, in which Russians are not citizens but subjects. There is a fusion between political and economic institutions and organized crime, which is willing to use tactics such as false flag attacks to achieve its goals. And all of this is accompanied by an utterly overwhelming presence of the secret services, which monitor everything, both inside and out. It is a totalitarian system with elements of Stalinism. But a capitalist economy that is sustained because the people who own companies know they owe favors to Putin, who is untouchable.

Deunion.

— That's why we Europeans can't rest easy and must begin to understand that we have a hostile power on our eastern border, one that is an expert in hybrid warfare techniques. If Putin has done what he's done within our borders, why wouldn't he do it abroad? He's an expert at fabricating attacks to achieve political objectives, and we also know that the Kremlin has traded with the Islamic State and has had infiltrators. Every attack in Germany fuels the far right, which is in Moscow's interest. I'm not saying it has to happen, but I am saying that Europe must be prepared to investigate each case, taking this hypothesis into account.

He says he has felt the breath of the Kremlin nearby.

— Not at the beginning of my correspondent's career. But over the years, I began to notice signs that made me think the Federal Security Service had me on its radar: strange things on my phone, people offering to work with me, and another, more decisive incident, which I can't explain why someone else is involved. I couldn't live in Russia again now. And I also have a list of countries, friends of the Kremlin, where I've decided it's best not to go.

He now lives in Barcelona. Are Putin's tentacles reaching here?

— Obviously. There are still spies and other Kremlin agents in Barcelona. Before the invasion, there were many Russian diplomats who, in practice, acted as spies. How? By generating disinformation bubbles and looking for spaces and moments of weakness to exert influence.

Who is Putin for you?

— A monster. I think he's a person who doesn't suffer for others, who has no sense of human empathy, and who has an absolute contempt for human life. We're seeing this in Ukraine: the progress he's made on the front lines has come at the cost of many, many dead soldiers. He's also a dictator who likes to humiliate people. Trump and Vance's booing of Zelensky in the Oval Office seemed inspired by how Putin treats his ministers.

Have you ever seen him in person?

— Yes, and it surprised me. Because in the images the Kremlin spreads, he is shown as idealized: stronger, taller... The feeling I got when I saw him for the first time was that he was a much shorter man than on television, that he had difficulty walking, that he wasn't at all athletic, and that his face was very swollen. Now, I don't know why, but I did get the feeling that he was a person who felt comfortable instilling fear in others.

Trump, on the other hand, is quite tall. According to Google, he's 6'9".

— Look, I don't think Putin and Trump are truly friends. On the other hand, they can be partners in dividing up the world. Trump's return to the White House is proof that we're once again experiencing an imperialist dynamic. He says he wants Canada and Greenland. Putin wants to regain significant influence in Europe, beyond Ukraine. And the progress he's making in Latin America is also astonishing, where, right now, Moscow is much better positioned than it was in the days of the Soviet Union. What we must be clear about is that what matters most to Putin is imperialist Russia. And another thing: the only country he respects is China, because the regime's continuity depends, to a large extent, on Beijing. Russia needs Xi Jinping to be able to continue exporting Russian oil, which is its fundamental source of income.

Do you miss Russia?

— Yes, very much so. Especially the first Russia I knew, when Putinism wasn't so widespread or so strong. I miss Moscow a lot from a cultural perspective, which is a first-class capital in this regard. I loved going to the theater, the opera, the ballet... the halls were always packed. It was very stimulating to live in Moscow. Now, it probably won't be so stimulating anymore, because many people with ideas have had to leave. I don't know what Moscow or what Russia will emerge from all this.