Contents tagged with Spain

  • Spain says it has evidence of Russian interference in the Catalan referendum

    The authorities of Spain have reported intervention by groups from Russia during the referendum on Catalan independence in order to destabilize the Spanish state. Deutsche Welle reports that the country’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Ministers made a statement on this topic on Monday, November 13 in Brussels.

    They stressed that Spain has evidence that public and private groups in Russia and Venezuela, used Twitter, Facebook and other social networks and websites as part of a large-scale …

  • Spanish Government: Catalan crisis was instigated by Russian hackers

    Russian hackers worked to exacerbate relations between Spain and Catalonia by spreading messages on social networks, as stated by two Ministers from the Spanish government, DW reports.

    Spain's Minister of Defense, María Dolores de Cospedal, noted that many messages on social networks on the topic of Catalonia came from the Russian segment of the Internet, however it is unknown whether the Russian government is involved.

    The presence of evidence of an intervention by hackers from "Russian …

  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister: We cannot draw parallels between Catalonia and the Crimea

    Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin believes that parallels should not be drawn between Catalonia, which declared independence from Spain, and annexed Crimea because of the absence of Russian troops in the first case.

    "Imagine 2,000 Russian tanks and armored vehicles, thousands of Russian regular troops and tens of thousands of Russian mercenaries all in Catalina today. All this would be controlled by Russia... But in the sense of Russia's attempts to conduct a hybrid war …

  • Spanish court agreed to extradite Russian hacker to the US

    The National Court of Spain approved the extradition to the US of a Russian citizen accused of creating a mass network of computer "bots" that were sending millions of spam emails a year.

    According to the decision made by the National Court of Spain, a special court that considers requests for extradition, Russian Pyotr Levashov should be brought to trial in the US where law enforcement regards him as one of the most infamous criminal spammers. It was reported that he has the right to appeal …

  • Media: Hackers from Russia help in preparing referendum in Catalonia

    Hackers from Russia are helping to support sites about Catalonia's referendum for independence and keep them operational, reported the newspaper El Pais, citing as a source in the Civil Guard of Spain.

    The newspaper notes that after law enforcement agencies blocked the physical channels for preparing a referendum, websites remain the only source of information on the lists of polling stations.

    “According to the Civil Guard, a group of hackers in Russia and its satellite countries are …

  • Russian national, owner of Spanish soccer team, detained in Spain over ties with Russian mafia

    Russian businessman Alexander Grinberg, as well as nine persons connected with him were detained in the Spanish resort town of Marbella as well as in neighboring Mijas.

    The representative of the Spanish Civil Guard (Gendarmerie) reported to DW (Deutsche Welle) on Tuesday, September 26th that the detainees are suspected of laundering money from the "Russian mafia," in particular, the Moscow organized crime group (OCG) Solntsevskaya, as well as the creation of a "criminal community" in Spain. …

  • Ukraine expels Spanish journalists, Spain voices protest

    Journalist organizations in Spain are outraged by the deportation of Spanish journalists from Ukraine who reported on the conflict in the Donbas, reports El Mundo.

    Antonio Pampliega and Manuel Angel Sastre were deported from the country on Friday after being detained at the airport in Kyiv for almost 20 hours.

    In 2015, Spanish journalists were added to the list of people who are a threat to the national security of Ukraine, which is why they were banned from entering Ukraine for a period of …

  • More than 300 Spanish soldiers from NATO battalion arrive in Latvia

    More than 300 Spanish soldiers from a multinational consolidated NATO battalion led by Canada have arrived in Latvia, as reported by the news agency LETA, citing the Republic's Ministry of Defense.

    The Spanish soldiers arrived in Latvia together with military equipment, including Leopard tanks, Pizarro infantry fighting vehicles, and cargo of technical support and logistics. In the next few days, they will be transferred to a military base in Adazi, where the NATO combat group will be deployed. …

  • Spanish politicians and businessmen visit Russian-annexed Crimea. Ukraine calls it 'an element of Russia’s hybrid war'

    On April 10, a delegation of politicians and businessmen from the Spanish province of Andalusia arrived in the annexed Crimea. According to RIA Novosti, the delegation included the president of the national assembly of Andalusia Pedro Altamirano and the federal coordinator of the national party of Andalusia (the city of Málaga) Salvador Garcia Urbano.

    “The delegation is already in the Crimea. It is expected to remain here until the 15th of April. During this time, a whole number of meetings …

  • Russian programmer arrested in Barcelona at request of U.S.

    The police of Barcelona arrested a Russian programmer at the request of the American authorities. According to preliminary information, 36-year-old Peter Levashov was arrested at the request of the United States on suspicion of involvement in hacking activities, in particular related to Donald Trump’s election campaign.

    The representative of the Consular Department of the Russian Embassy in Madrid, Andrey Konstantinov, confirmed the fact that he had been arrested. According to Levashov’s wife, …