The scandalous photo of a PP mayor on a 'Spain and Russia Friendship Walk'

Russia has been carrying out unprovoked and large-scale aggression against Ukraine for three years, committing countless war crimes.

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Under these conditions, a democratic party in a country like Spain should avoid any attempt to legitimize the aggressor country. Some seem to misunderstand something so basic, as demonstrated by a news story published today by the newspaper El Español about a "pilgrimage" by the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad (SKVRiZ) along the Camino de Santiago, which took place from June 23 to 29. This organization has actively supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine since its inception, spreading Kremlin slogans.

The aforementioned media outlet points out that a small group from the Spanish section of that organization, implicated in war crimes in Ukraine, not only limited themselves to following the Jacobean Route, but also took a photo with the mayor of La Estrada (Pontevedra), Gonzalo Louzao (of the Popular Party), "next to a granite memorial that has signed in stone the creation of an avenue of friendship between Russia and Spain".

On June 23, the website of that Russian Cossack organization published two photos of the memorial, with the following text:

"The opening ceremony of the Walk was attended by the mayor of the city of La Estrada, Gonzalo Louzao, the acting head of the Russian House in Madrid, Ekaterina Gennadyevna Zhuravleva, and the ataman of the Cossack communities in Spain, Alexander Ivanovich Vasilenko."

In one of the two photos, the following inscription can be clearly seen on the granite memorial in Spanish: "Spain and Russia Friendship Walk. A Estrada 2025." In the other photo, the mayor appears smiling and touching the memorial with his right hand. Speaking to El Español, the mayor states: "I didn't know anything." He also claims that the granite memorial is in vineyards, that is, on a private estate, stating that the Russian visitors invited him to visit "a plantation of Albariño vineyards. It's true that there was a stone there that they tied to the ground, but I went for the vineyards. There was no bad faith on our part. We have nothing to do with that plaque. You could say they used us."

One might ask: Did the mayor not even read the inscription on the monolith next to which he posed smiling? On the other hand, it should be noted that on April 26, the newspapers Faro de Vigo and La Voz de Galicia reported about a visit by the counselor of the Russian Embassy in Spain and representative of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation, Sergey Levoshin, to La Estrada: "He was received at the town hall by the mayor, Gonzalo Louzao, along with the deputy lieutenant of the Lalín Civil Guard Company, Eloy Balo, and the head of the Local Police, Javier García", said Faro de Vigo. Did the mayor not know who he was receiving that day or the things that the Russian dictatorship does in Ukraine?

It should be noted that that scandalous photo of the mayor of La Estrada has already been published by several Russian media and pro-Russian propaganda outlets, such as Gazeta.ru, Rambler.ru and Kazachestvo.ru. The irresponsibility of the mayor of La Estrada in accepting these Russian visits to his municipality has served the Russian regime to portray this Galician town as a Russian-friendly place in the midst of Russian aggression against Ukraine. Aren't you ashamed, Mr. Mayor?