Julian Assange is rallying behind Catalan separatists — and Russia has taken notice

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September 30, 2017 7:17 PM

Wikileaks has been a convenient propaganda tool for the Russian regime, and its support of the Catalonia referendum is no exception.

Assange, for all intents and purposes, has become the independence movement's chief international spokesman. The vast majority of his tweets this month,

The outlet posted 220 stories about the Catalan independence movement between September 11 and 27, according to Digital Forensic Research Lab, most with false or misleading headlines and a clear pro-independence bias. The outlet's headlines gave "more prominence to Assange" than either Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont or Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

The narrative Assange has been peddling is not, at its core, too far off-base: Madrid has declared the referendum illegal, and federal police raided a dozen Catalan regional government offices last week — and arrested fourteen regional officials — in an attempt to stall the vote. And while Catalan voters have never approved secession in past referendums, Madrid's crackdown may make them think twice.

But Assange's exaggerated characterizations of Madrid as a "banana monarchy" and the referendum itself as a "war" between

Wikileaks, too, has been weaponized: Its Twitter account, which many believe to be operated by Assange, alleged last week that Madrid was trying to "crush" the October 1 vote.

A convenient propaganda tool

On Friday, Assange appeared to echo a Sputnik report published that morning that said Spain had closed the airspace over Catalonia to prevent small aircraft from taking photos of the referendum turnout.

The government did decide to restrict the airspace over the region in preparation for Sunday's vote, but not for the reasons Assange or Sputnik would have their readers believe. Restricting low-flying aircraft from hovering over large crowds has long been standard procedure in Spain, which has implemented the rules ahead of large sporting events in the past.

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Thursday that the Catalan crisis

journalist and Russia researcher Casey Michel noted this week, the Kremlin has not exactly been an unbiased observer of Spain's recent political turmoil.

"flown to Moscow

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In Europe, Kramer added, Moscow supported the Scottish National Party's bid for independence as part of its "v

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