The infamous favors of Pedro Sánchez's government to Vladimir Putin's dictatorship

In Spain, the Kremlin has more allies and useful idiots than it seems, located in different ideological coordinates.

Sánchez increases the percentage of Russian gas imported by Spain: it already exceeds that from the US
Pedro Sánchez's government tries to delete the Russian plot of the 2017 coup in Catalonia

Most of Putin's puppets in Spain are located on the extreme left. The Russian dictator also has fans on the marginal extreme right (the most foolish, considering that Russia is an ally of communist and Islamist dictatorships). Also worth mentioning is the support for Russia from separatist groups, perhaps in compensation for Russia's support for the 2017 separatist coup in Catalonia.

But the most influential of all Putin's useful idiots in Spain is the government of Pedro Sánchez, which has not stopped doing favors for Russia even after the start of the large-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine, leaving aside the posturing of Spanish aid to the invaded country. Let us remember that according to the Kiel Institute, Spanish military aid to Ukraine is less than that of small countries such as Lithuania, Belgium or the Czech Republic, despite the fact that Spain has much more population and resources than them. Let us review below some of these infamous favors of the Sánchez government to the Putin dictatorship.

Purchase of Russian gas

This week, the British newspaper Financial Times identified Spain as the second largest importer of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the European Union, second only to France. This is nothing new: the European Council already pointed this out in 2023. Also this week, Politico.eu noted: "The vast majority of Russia’s LNG arrives at ports in Spain, Belgium and France from the Yamal plant, a vast facility in frosty northern Siberia."

In December 2024, I already pointed out here that Sanchez has increased the percentage of Russian gas imported by Spain, surpassing that from the US, which is an ally of Spain. With these imports, the Sánchez government is financing Putin's aggression against Ukraine. Let us remember that in 2022 and 2023, Spain injected 6.42 billion euros into Russia with these gas purchases, an amount considerably greater than Spanish military aid to Ukraine in the same period: 330 million euros. euros.

Purchase of Russian oil through Morocco

In June 2022, the European Union banned the purchase, import and transfer of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia. However, in April 2024, Repsol revealed that Russian oil continues to arrive in Spain through various intermediaries. Coincidentally, coinciding with the European veto on Russian oil, Morocco began exporting oil to Spain for the first time since 2015. Thus, what Spain does is buy Russian oil through Morocco, bypassing these sanctions.

The Sánchez government was informed of the origin of that oil and did nothing, which indicates that it knew perfectly well what it was doing when it bought that oil. In addition to violating European sanctions by buying oil from Morocco from Russia, at the same time, the Sánchez government is banning oil exploitation in Spain.

The decapitation of the CNI

One of the most scandalous favors of the Sánchez government to the Putin regime took place in May 2022: the dismissal of the then director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), the Spanish intelligence service, at the request of two of the Kremlin's political puppets in Spain, namely the far-left party Podemos and the separatist party ERC. It just so happens that businessmen linked to ERC and another separatist party, Junts, contacted Russia in the run-up to the 2017 separatist coup.

Instead of investigating Putin's puppets in Spain, Sánchez handed them the CNI on a silver platter, subordinating national security to the pacts of the socialist government with parties that have been opposing the sending of military aid to Ukraine. This explains, to a large extent, why, unlike what has happened in other European countries, in Spain no measures have been taken against Russian propaganda networks.

The erasure of the Russian plot of the 2017 separatist coup

I have left the most serious thing for last. Instead of investigating the contacts between the Catalan separatists and Russia, Sanchez granted the separatists an amnesty that included preventing the investigation of the Russian plot behind that coup. The government is no longer satisfied with that, but now its official thesis is that this Russian plot did not exist, and all because investigating it would compromise the allies that Sánchez needs to stay in power. With this, a serious interference by a foreign power that sought to break national unity is left unpunished, an impunity that Sánchez grants because for him the most important thing is to hold on to power at any price. I hope that one day he will answer in court for it.

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Photo: Grok. An image of Pedro Sánchez and Vladimir Putin generated with artificial intelligence.