#that first they have to be pressured not to let Russia participate after invading another country
Link
9 Dec 2020. Raphael Tsavkko Garcia - Brazilian journalist and researcher.
How Spain, allegedly, came close to being invaded by Russia
The latest far-fetched accusation the Spanish state directed at the leaders of the Catalan independence movement could well be from a cheap spy novella.
Europe could have looked strikingly different today if Catalan politicians took Russia up on its alleged offer to help Catalonia achieve independence in 2017 – at least according to the Spanish authorities.
If only they said “da” and agreed to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea as legitimate, a clandestine Russian group founded during the Gorbachev era would have sent 10,000 men to Barcelona to force the Spanish state into submission and, amid much chaos and bloodshed, declare former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont as the president of the independent Republic of Catalonia. The Kremlin, meanwhile, would have paid off all of Catalonia’s national debt and supported the new country in the international arena, leaving the European Union embarrassed and divided.
This is not the plot of a cheap spy novella, but the latest far-fetched accusation the Spanish state directed at the leaders of the Catalan independence movement to undermine the legitimacy of their struggle.
Of course, as we all know, Russia did not try to invade Spain to help Catalan pro-independence activists. In fact, it did not even recognise Catalonia as an independent state in the aftermath of the 2017 independence referendum. Moreover, the only “proof” of such an offer ever being made is a recording the Spanish police allegedly found on the confiscated phone of a Catalan politician. So far, the authorities provided no indication that the offer was ever considered by Puigdemont, nor did they provide any additional evidence that there had been an offer.
However, the authorities pointed to these unsubstantiated claims as one of the reasons behind a massive police operation against the leaders of the Catalan independence movement, which resulted in the arrests of 21 senior Catalan politicians and activists on October 28.
While the authorities accused the arrested individuals of a variety of crimes, from misuse of public funds and abuse of office to money laundering, the fact that they codenamed the operation “Volkhov” in reference to the World War II front where Spanish fascists fought alongside the Nazis against the Soviet Union clearly indicated that their primary aim was to add weight to their claims that Russia is tacitly supporting the Catalan independence movement.
People not familiar with the Spanish state’s relentless harassment and persecution of Catalan activists and politicians may find it shocking that a police operation has been named after such a dark chapter in Spanish history, or that state authorities publicly accused an overwhelmingly peaceful political movement of considering unleashing a 10,000-strong Russian militia on Europe on such flimsy evidence. But the Spanish security forces have long been acting as if they are working not for a democratic European state but an erstwhile fascist dictatorship. And being spied on, unlawfully jailed, and accused of treason and terrorism merely for their political views, sadly, is a daily reality for Catalans fighting for independence.
Since the 2017 independence referendum, the Spanish state has been working round the clock to intimidate and silence Catalan activists and elected officials. In 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court found nine high-profile Catalan politicians guilty of “sedition” for helping organise the independence referendum and sentenced them to 9-13 years in prison. Amnesty International deemed the verdict “an excessive and disproportionate restriction on the peaceful exercise of [the convicted politicians’] human rights” while the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions called for the immediate release of these political prisoners. However, turning a blind eye to these criticisms, the Spanish prosecutors not only refused to reconsider their position but demanded the “re-education in the Constitution” of Catalan political prisoners in order to allow them to leave prison for a few hours a day.
Many activists and politicians, including Puigdemont, meanwhile, were forced to flee the country to avoid being detained. But pro-independence Catalans lucky enough to find an opportunity to leave the country before being arrested could not escape the Spanish state’s harassment and persecution either. The Spanish Secret service illegally spied on them across the borders of the EU, and the state used all avenues available to it to stop their political activities and secure their extradition back to Spain.
Puigdemont, who is currently living in exile in Belgium, has been a member of the European Parliament since 2019. However, Spain is actively working to convince the European Parliament to lift his parliamentary immunity – which prevents Madrid from asking for his extradition. Another Catalan MEP, Toni Comín, is in the same situation. Former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, who became an MEP alongside Puigdemont last year, was unable to take his seat in the European Parliament in the first place, as he has been in provisional detention in Spain for the alleged crime of sedition for the last two years.
Quim Torra, who became the president of the regional government of Catalonia in May 2018 following Puigdemont’s forceful removal from the office, was “disqualified” from the role in September for the unbelievable “crime” of refusing to remove banners in support of the independence movement and Catalan political prisoners from the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya – the historic building housing the offices of the regional government.
It is not only prominent movement leaders whom the Spanish government, judiciary, and security forces are trying to intimidate and silence through politically motivated investigations and trumped-up charges. About 700 Catalan mayors are currently being investigated for taking part in the 2017 independence referendum. Many Catalan activists are facing charges for “crimes” like organising strikes and blocking roads. Several activists have been charged with “possessing explosives” – which turned out to be just fireworks. Even Catalonia’s most senior police chiefs faced charges of “sedition” for “not doing enough” to stop Catalan voters from taking part in the 2017 referendum – in the end, they were all acquitted.
All these efforts failed to put an end to the Catalan desire for self-determination, so it would seem Spanish authorities have decided now to malign the independence movement with ridiculous accusations of collaborating with Russia to reach their political aims and to bring destruction and war to the EU.
The Catalan leaders never hid the fact that they are willing and ready to talk to all nations, and influential political activists and journalists like Julian Assange, to increase support for their movement. They have also been open about their plans to create a Virtual Catalan Republic, a digital infrastructure not subject to Spanish control, as a way to broaden popular participation in regional politics and also make it more difficult for Spanish justice to intervene in their political activities. They are even trying to create a Catalan cryptocurrency and alternative means of digital payment to free themselves from the clutches of the Spanish banking system. These efforts are managed by the Consell per la República Catalana (Council for the Catalan Republic), a private organisation based in Belgium headed by Puigdemont.
But none of these efforts and initiatives signals a desire on the part of the independence movement to go to war with the EU, let alone invite Russian troops to Europe. Moreover, the idea that Russia would risk a war with the EU and NATO to help liberate a nation that is nowhere near its own territory is as absurdly ridiculous as it is embarrassing.
While the EU did nothing to stop Spain’s determined repression of Catalan political freedoms beyond issuing occasional empty statements, Madrid still failed to extinguish the flames of independence and freedom in Catalonia. As a result, the Spanish authorities now seem determined to stir Europe’s deep-rooted fears of Russian intervention to be allowed to increase the pressure they have long been putting on their Catalan citizens. Nevertheless, not even this newly invented “Russian connection” is going to be enough to make Catalans give up on their dream of independence. It may, however, help Hollywood screenwriters come up with the plot of their next action-filled spy thriller.
37 notes
·
View notes
Link
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — The envelope might have been kept securely in her bag, but she still checked it every few minutes, just to make sure that the most precious of things was still there.
“I keep coming back and checking, checking, checking,” she said, pulling out a long card from a zip pocket. “It is like a treasure to me.”
Held carefully in her two small hands was a prize millions of other soccer fans sometimes take for granted: a match ticket.
To be precise, this was a ticket to Iran’s opening game at this World Cup, against Morocco in St. Petersburg on Friday. Her first ticket to see her national team play live.
That she held it at all was the reason she could not stop checking to ensure that it was safe, and that it was real.
“It is so beautiful,” she said.
She had traveled to Russia from Iran, where women are barred from attending men’s matches. She has become an activist in a 13-year campaign to persuade the authorities to rescind the ban and, as such, uses the name Sara to conceal her real identity for fear of arrest.
Sara’s campaign began in 2005. At first, Sara, a sports obsessive who also follows volleyball and basketball, would protest with a few dozen other women outside Tehran’s vast Azadi Stadium. Azadi means “freedom” in Farsi.
“I remember in 2005, we wanted to watch football, and many educated people didn’t recognize it as something that is a women’s rights issue,” she said. Initially, there was some success as they were allowed to gather. But after a violent crackdown, and following the failed Green Revolution in 2009 that led to a period of repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the protests stopped. Instead, Sara moved to social media, where she set up an anonymous account on Twitter, calling it @openstadiums.
Her Twitter account has helped give her local campaign global exposure, and won her new supporters.
“We first connected via social media,” said Moya Dodd, an Australian soccer official who once sat on FIFA’s ruling executive committee. “It was my job to represent those without a voice. I had to figure out how to do that.”
Dodd managed to raise the issue of Iran’s stadium ban with then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who in turn raised it privately and publicly after meeting with Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2015. What was once a minority issue was now moving into the mainstream.
“She’s helped make the stadium ban a symbol of something much more: Iranian women’s right to fully participate in society,” Dodd said.
The issue is now a talking point in Iran. In July, after Iran qualified for the World Cup, the team was invited to meet with Rouhani. Iran’s captain, Masoud Shojaei, took the opportunity to raise the ban on women at stadiums during the meeting. “Masoud is incredible,” Sara said. “We are really proud we have this kind of captain.”
But speaking out in Iran can have consequences. And Shojaei later was dropped from the national team after conservative politicians and commentators criticized him for playing a match with his Greek club against an Israeli team, something considered a red line in Tehran. (He was reintroduced into Iran’s team shortly before the World Cup by the team’s coach, Carlos Queiroz.)
In March, Sara was among three dozen female soccer fans and activists arrested and held for a number of hours after trying to enter the Azadi — some while dressed as men — for the biggest match in the country, a local showdown between Persepolis and Esteghlal that was watched by as many as 100,000 men. Sara managed to escape that day, with the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, in the stadium as he watched the game with Iranian officials.
Infantino did not raise the issue of the ban on women publicly while in Iran, but he later said he had brought it up privately, and had been assured by Rouhani that there were plans to end it.
“It is really stressful, it is difficult when you are living in such conditions,” Sara said of her efforts to end the ban as a private citizen. “Any move you make, you have to think, is going to put myself or my family in danger. You feel terrorized.”
But with only a few hours until kickoff Friday in St. Petersburg, Sara was torn. On the one hand, she wanted to enjoy a match without pressure, the way most women in the world can. Yet she was also aware that the World Cup was a platform to let a wider audience know her cause in Iran.
“It is their right, they have to be in the stadiums,” she said of Iranian women. “Football is not for men only.”
On Friday, many Iranian women joined the procession of fans to the St. Petersburg stadium. Some of the women were from Tehran, others were drawn to Russia from the global Iranian diaspora. Sara met another Iranian activist who lives in the United States, and they unfolded two banners. The one held by Sara said: “Support Iranian Women to Attend Stadiums #NoBan4Women.” Passing Iranian fans, buoyed by their pregame excitement, offered support, or took a moment to pose for photographs with the signs.
Russian police officers looked on but did not intervene.
As the start of the game approached, the groups that had gathered split up and began to head to their seats. Sara found her gate, and took her place in line. Ever since getting off the bus that had brought her near the stadium, she said, she had been unable to suppress a smile.
“Every time we went to demonstrate, it never happened,” she said of her previous attempts to buy a ticket in Iran. “Now, football is going from two dimensions to three dimensions.”
This time, she knew, would be different. This time, for the first time, her ticket would be accepted. This time, she would be welcomed inside.
“Wish me luck,” she said as she disappeared into the crowd beyond the security check.
More than 60,000 supporters, split fairly evenly between the two nations, watched the game. Morocco looked the more accomplished of the teams as the game proceeded, and the stadium was filled with the incessant buzz of vuvuzelas. Both teams had good chances, which they squandered, and there was a huge ovation for Shojaei when he limped off midway through the second half.
The game looked to be drifting toward a 0-0 stalemate when, in the final minutes, Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz accidentally diverted a swerving pass past his own goalkeeper.
The Iranian players on the bench invaded the field to join in the celebration until they reluctantly returned to count down the final few seconds of the first World Cup victory for Iran in 20 years. The last, in 1998, was a famous 2-1 victory against the United States.
After the final whistle, the players made three laps of honor as Iran’s fans seemed reluctant to leave. Finally, the fans poured into the concourses and onto the plazas outside. Sara, who had maneuvered her way through the crowds to the exit, looked dazed.
“I don’t know how to celebrate,” she said, trying to explain the feeling of watching her first World Cup match. “I was shocked.”
But the shock didn’t last long.
“It was something I had never experienced before,” she said before rejoining the party. “I need to go to more games.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
JAMES MONTAGUE © 2018 The New York Times
via NewsSplashy - Latest Nigerian News Online,World Newspaper
0 notes
Text
World: Barred from stadiums at home, an Iranian activist enters a new world in St. Petersburg
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — The envelope might have been kept securely in her bag, but she still checked it every few minutes, just to make sure that the most precious of things was still there.
“I keep coming back and checking, checking, checking,” she said, pulling out a long card from a zip pocket. “It is like a treasure to me.”
Held carefully in her two small hands was a prize millions of other soccer fans sometimes take for granted: a match ticket.
To be precise, this was a ticket to Iran’s opening game at this World Cup, against Morocco in St. Petersburg on Friday. Her first ticket to see her national team play live.
That she held it at all was the reason she could not stop checking to ensure that it was safe, and that it was real.
“It is so beautiful,” she said.
She had traveled to Russia from Iran, where women are barred from attending men’s matches. She has become an activist in a 13-year campaign to persuade the authorities to rescind the ban and, as such, uses the name Sara to conceal her real identity for fear of arrest.
Sara’s campaign began in 2005. At first, Sara, a sports obsessive who also follows volleyball and basketball, would protest with a few dozen other women outside Tehran’s vast Azadi Stadium. Azadi means “freedom” in Farsi.
“I remember in 2005, we wanted to watch football, and many educated people didn’t recognize it as something that is a women’s rights issue,” she said. Initially, there was some success as they were allowed to gather. But after a violent crackdown, and following the failed Green Revolution in 2009 that led to a period of repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the protests stopped. Instead, Sara moved to social media, where she set up an anonymous account on Twitter, calling it @openstadiums.
Her Twitter account has helped give her local campaign global exposure, and won her new supporters.
“We first connected via social media,” said Moya Dodd, an Australian soccer official who once sat on FIFA’s ruling executive committee. “It was my job to represent those without a voice. I had to figure out how to do that.”
Dodd managed to raise the issue of Iran’s stadium ban with then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who in turn raised it privately and publicly after meeting with Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2015. What was once a minority issue was now moving into the mainstream.
“She’s helped make the stadium ban a symbol of something much more: Iranian women’s right to fully participate in society,” Dodd said.
The issue is now a talking point in Iran. In July, after Iran qualified for the World Cup, the team was invited to meet with Rouhani. Iran’s captain, Masoud Shojaei, took the opportunity to raise the ban on women at stadiums during the meeting. “Masoud is incredible,” Sara said. “We are really proud we have this kind of captain.”
But speaking out in Iran can have consequences. And Shojaei later was dropped from the national team after conservative politicians and commentators criticized him for playing a match with his Greek club against an Israeli team, something considered a red line in Tehran. (He was reintroduced into Iran’s team shortly before the World Cup by the team’s coach, Carlos Queiroz.)
In March, Sara was among three dozen female soccer fans and activists arrested and held for a number of hours after trying to enter the Azadi — some while dressed as men — for the biggest match in the country, a local showdown between Persepolis and Esteghlal that was watched by as many as 100,000 men. Sara managed to escape that day, with the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, in the stadium as he watched the game with Iranian officials.
Infantino did not raise the issue of the ban on women publicly while in Iran, but he later said he had brought it up privately, and had been assured by Rouhani that there were plans to end it.
“It is really stressful, it is difficult when you are living in such conditions,” Sara said of her efforts to end the ban as a private citizen. “Any move you make, you have to think, is going to put myself or my family in danger. You feel terrorized.”
But with only a few hours until kickoff Friday in St. Petersburg, Sara was torn. On the one hand, she wanted to enjoy a match without pressure, the way most women in the world can. Yet she was also aware that the World Cup was a platform to let a wider audience know her cause in Iran.
“It is their right, they have to be in the stadiums,” she said of Iranian women. “Football is not for men only.”
On Friday, many Iranian women joined the procession of fans to the St. Petersburg stadium. Some of the women were from Tehran, others were drawn to Russia from the global Iranian diaspora. Sara met another Iranian activist who lives in the United States, and they unfolded two banners. The one held by Sara said: “Support Iranian Women to Attend Stadiums #NoBan4Women.” Passing Iranian fans, buoyed by their pregame excitement, offered support, or took a moment to pose for photographs with the signs.
Russian police officers looked on but did not intervene.
As the start of the game approached, the groups that had gathered split up and began to head to their seats. Sara found her gate, and took her place in line. Ever since getting off the bus that had brought her near the stadium, she said, she had been unable to suppress a smile.
“Every time we went to demonstrate, it never happened,” she said of her previous attempts to buy a ticket in Iran. “Now, football is going from two dimensions to three dimensions.”
This time, she knew, would be different. This time, for the first time, her ticket would be accepted. This time, she would be welcomed inside.
“Wish me luck,” she said as she disappeared into the crowd beyond the security check.
More than 60,000 supporters, split fairly evenly between the two nations, watched the game. Morocco looked the more accomplished of the teams as the game proceeded, and the stadium was filled with the incessant buzz of vuvuzelas. Both teams had good chances, which they squandered, and there was a huge ovation for Shojaei when he limped off midway through the second half.
The game looked to be drifting toward a 0-0 stalemate when, in the final minutes, Morocco’s Aziz Bouhaddouz accidentally diverted a swerving pass past his own goalkeeper.
The Iranian players on the bench invaded the field to join in the celebration until they reluctantly returned to count down the final few seconds of the first World Cup victory for Iran in 20 years. The last, in 1998, was a famous 2-1 victory against the United States.
After the final whistle, the players made three laps of honor as Iran’s fans seemed reluctant to leave. Finally, the fans poured into the concourses and onto the plazas outside. Sara, who had maneuvered her way through the crowds to the exit, looked dazed.
“I don’t know how to celebrate,” she said, trying to explain the feeling of watching her first World Cup match. “I was shocked.”
But the shock didn’t last long.
“It was something I had never experienced before,” she said before rejoining the party. “I need to go to more games.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
JAMES MONTAGUE © 2018 The New York Times
source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/world-barred-from-stadiums-at-home.html
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
