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A Spanish court's investigation into the alleged activity of Russian spies in Catalonia around the time of the 2017 independence referendum has not gone unnoticed in the Kremlin. Following statements on the matter from several Russian government spokespeople, it appears that Moscow has decided to deploy a new and rather daring weapon to support its cause: humour.

The Russian embassy in Spain has fired off a salvo of rather dry tweets in reply to an article in Spanish newspaper El País, which claimed that three members of an elite Russian military unit bearing the identifying number 29155 travelled to Catalonia between November 2016 and December 2017, according to investigation by Bellingcat, a UK-based investigative journalism website specialized in fact-checking and open-source intelligence.

The Russian diplomats made reference to the research that the Spanish newspaper had published and sent a reply laced with irony. "In relation to the El País investigators' tireless efforts to uncover [that] the origin of the Catalan crisis [is] in Russia, we would like to draw your attention to a revealing fact," they wrote.

"There is a suspicious coincidence: the number of the alleged Russian Unit, which is mentioned in the newspaper, ends in 155, which in itself creates a new reality. So, follow this lead!" 

The three-digit number scarcely needs any explanation in Catalonia or indeed Spain, since Article 155 is the controversial provision of the Spanish Constitution which Madrid used to impose direct rule on Catalonia after the 2017 referendum. 

So what's the investigation really about?

The investigation focuses on general Denis Sergeyev, AKA Sergey Fedotov, as well as Alexey Kalinin and Mikhail Opryshko. According to this information, Sergeyev travelled to Barcelona on a direct flight from Moscow in November 2016 and returned to the Russian capital six days later, on November 11th, but from Geneva. Sergeyev is thought to have once again visited the Catalan capital on September 29th, 2017, "just two days before the referendum", says El País. However, the newspaper acknowledges that the Russian agent returned to his country the next day, September 30th, again from Switzerland. That is, without being present for the referendum.

As for the other two agents, they are only thought to have travelled to Catalonia once each. Alexey Kalinin did so in December 2016, and returned to Russia from Rome (Italy). For his part, Mijaíl Opryshko arrived a year later, in December 2017 - with Article 155 already in application - and it isn't known how long he stayed in Catalonia.

But there was more. After El País published an article headed "Russia attempts to ridicule the National Audience court's investigation into its spies", Moscow again put one of its diplomatic community managers on the case. "Dear El País newsroom, you need to pay more attention. The headline you wrote about our reply does not reflect its content," they wrote.

The point they were making: the Russian embassy's tweet had never mentioned the Spanish court investigation, just the connection that the Spanish newspaper had drawn between the Bellingcat inquiry, which details only the movements of suspected Russian agents on European territory, and the Catalan independence process.

Title photo: Jennifer Lawrence in 'Red Sparrow'