Victor Terradellasthe former head of international relations for Democratic Convergence (CDC)), friend and confidant of Carles Puigdemonttraveled to Moscow to meet with the former Russian diplomat Nicolay Sadovnikov, as sources familiar with this meeting confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO. This visit came after the meeting held on October 26, 2017, one day before the unilateral declaration of independence (DUI), between this alleged Russian envoy and the former Catalan president at the Casa dels Canonges (his official residence), in Barcelona. The contacts of the plot with Sadovnikov were maintained for months, at least until May 2018, when Terradellas was arrested, as evidenced by the WhatsApp messages that were located on his mobile phone. Puigdemont admitted on Monday that he received the former diplomat the day before the DUI, although he disdained the content of the meeting.
In the conversations of Terradellas and Jordi Sardà Bonvehibusinessman who was denounced in December 2012 for Natural gas for having posed as his representative in the Ukraine, the name of Nicolay comes up on several occasions, whom a journalistic investigation has identified Sadovnikov. Italian diplomatic sources place this former diplomat as an adviser to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2018 and, specifically, as an expert in European affairs. It is Sardà who speaks most profusely about this enigmatic “envoy”, as presented. “If I and Nikolay, when I am with him in Moscow, I have to specify“, affirmed this Catalan businessman on May 18, 2018. Days before, on February 16, he sent another message to Terradellas: “Nicolay arrives at 10:40 p.m.”, although it is not specified where. The existence of this has not been proven trip to Barcelona. The ex-charge of the CDC replies the next day: “I can’t go out anywhere and (…) orders from my boss”.
“When I’m with him [Nicolay] in Moscow I have to specify & rdquor;
Jordi Sardà Bonvehi, Catalan businessman
The messages record Sadovnikov’s contacts with Terradellas himself. Sardà relates on March 14, 2018: “Nicolay already told you, [Putin] it is a structure, not a person & rdquor ;. Puigdemont’s friend replies: “Yes, one more piece of the gear that you are the Nikolai’s team. I (with your help) will do this (…). By the way, I’m sure we’ll make mistakes and you’ll have to be patient.” On that date, the group managed, according to the conversations, the transfer of ‘bitcoins’. “Have you done the trans? Tell me something, “writes Terradellas, who copies the address of a virtual wallet sent by a third person and passes it to Sardà. The opinion of this Catalan businessman about the former Russian diplomat and his environment:” You already know that we are a bit Machiavellian (the Nikolay enjoys surprising people)”.
Even on two occasions, in 2018, there is talk of trips to Moscow to meet this former Russian diplomat. In the first, in January of that year, Terradellas asks Sardà: “Do you want me to come to Moscow with you on Monday?” The businessman replies: “Yes, we will go to Moscow”. The second time that the former head of international relations for the CDC talks about going to the Russian capital is on April 24, days before his arrest. “prepare the passport I’ll pick it up for you this afternoon. Surely on Friday we will go to Moscow (…) I will go to do the visas, “he told his wife. Plane tickets were located on Terradellas’s mobile phone. The sources consulted assure that on that occasion he could not go because they arrested him .
The audios of discord
Next Wednesday, Terradellas will have the opportunity to clarify this entire situation before the Barcelona judge Joaquin Aguirre, who will question him about the activities of the entity he managed, CatMón. Above all, he will be able to explain why he exposed the alleged Russian offer of economic aid and the 10,000 soldiers to former CDC official David Madí, and to Xavier Vendrell, ‘former minister’ of ERC, considered members of Puigdemont’s ‘general staff’ . And the reason I had the recording. The audios with these conversations were discovered by the Police on Terradellas’s mobile phone.
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In the audios recorded on May 14 and 16, 2018, two themes are collected: the possibility of launching a cryptocurrency system and Russia’s offer to help complete the independence of Catalonia. In those conversations it is detailed that, in October 2017, the head of a “russian group” who had contacted Terradellas in relation to the cryptocurrency platform offered Puigdemont “to have 10,000 soldiers and pay all Catalan debt“, but that the ‘ex-president’, in the words of Terradellas, “shit in his pants”.
These assertions were met with skepticism by Vendrell and Madí. The latter even asked Terradellas: “And how have you verified this guy?” Vendrell, about the Russian soldiers, wondered: “How do you get 10,000 guys in here?” This information gave rise to the Voloh macro-operation, of alleged corruption and financing of the ‘procés’. There were 21 detainees and multiple records.