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Diplomat rejects claims of Russian meddling in Catalan crisis

A diplomat says Madrid’s unfounded claims of Russia’s alleged interference in Spain’s internal affairs are harmful to bilateral relations

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Madrid’s unfounded claims of Russia’s alleged interference in Spain’s internal affairs are harmful to bilateral relations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

The Russian diplomat thus commented on claims by some Spanish officials that Russia was allegedly supporting separatist sentiments in Catalonia.

"Such disregard for objective facts and the unjustified infatuation with unproven overblown accusations taken from dubious sources clearly do not do any good for Spanish diplomacy," she said.

"Such steps won’t yield anything except damage for Russian-Spanish relations," the diplomat said.

Moscow regrets about a "wave of the anti-Russian campaign unleashed in Western media and this time taken on by Madrid at the official level in the context of the Catalan crisis," the spokeswoman said.

"It would be nice for Spanish colleagues to start bearing responsibility for their words and provide concrete facts," she said.

"The Russian side has repeatedly outlined officially its firm and unambiguous position on the Catalan theme. It will suffice at least to look at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement of September 11," the diplomat noted.

In an interview with Spanish media on November 10, Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis Quecedo claimed the existence of reports evidencing that Russian hackers were seeking to destabilize Europe. On November 13, following a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers, Dastis Quecedo repeated his claims but said at the same time that the Spanish authorities had not officially found that the Russian government was behind these intentions. The foreign minister also noted at the time that the Spanish government had shared this information with the Russian authorities.