In public, he speaks of peace between the peoples and cries out ambiguously against the “Russophobia” and “the radicals” in the Ukraine War, without differentiating between aggressor and attacked in a conflict on which he does not usually publicly pronounce his preferences. Privately, in their messages aimed at their interlocutors in Moscow, he acquires A very different moodpresenting itself as a powerful influence agent In Spain at the head of Pravfond, a Russian organization created in 2012 by former president Dmitri Medvedev and vetoed in the EU since 2023, proud of the success of the awareness campaigns “against NATO” launched by him and his environment and even reporting future objectives in the public opinion of our country, such as the creation of a pool of “Spanish journalists and lawyers loyal to the Russian federation.” It’s about Aleksándr Chepurnoydirector of the influential house of Russia in Alicante and leader of ‘facto’ of a community of Russian residents in this province of the Valencian Community estimated in Two tens of thousands of citizensa man who has also managed to establish ties with Alicante leaders of the PP and the PSOE.
International investigation, led by the project to denounce corruption and organized crime (ECCRP) and in which the newspaper has participated, has had access to 50,000 documents of the Foundation for the support and protection of compatriots’ rightsbetter known as Pravfond, dedicated, according to its statutes, to “provide legal assistance to compatriots and human rights organizations” but vetoed in EU territory since July 2023 due to their support actions to Propaganda campaigns y influence agents from Moscow. The firm of Chepurnay appears at the foot of several of the documents obtained, both in reports of their activities sent to their financiers in Moscow and in contracts and receipts of quantities in charge of the public treasury of Russia with a date after the entry into force of the sanctions. According to The general conclusions From the investigation, Pravfond has continued to finance its activities in community territory without excessive difficulties despite the veto of Brussels and, according to the documents found, the Spanish section of the organization supervised by Chepurnay does not constitute any exception to this rule.
In a report sent to Moscow, Chepurnay says that the center works to “create a pool of lawyers and loyal journalists to the Russian Federation”
The newspaper has sent a message to Chepurnay, announcing the content and publication of the investigation to collect its version, but has not received any response, so it assumes that the interested party renounces his right to make any comment about some investigations that allude to him directly.
First document
In a first documentunder the title ‘Report on the objectives of use of subsidies’, signed by Chepurnay and referred to Aleksandr Udaltsov, a race diplomat and sanctioned president of Pravfond, that describes with profusion the influence campaigns undertaken by the “Spanish section” of Pravfond during the exercise of 2023 with the money received from Moscow. Specifically, under the epigraph 2 ‘tactical and strategic objectives and actions’, the president of the Russia’s house In Alicante reports that “the center carries out its work for the creation of a pool of Spanish journalists and lawyers to the Russian Federation.”

Images of the ‘Report on the objectives of the use of the subsidies’ of 2024 sent by Aleksando Chepurnay where he talks about creating a “pool of Spanish journalists and lawyers” to Russia and is proud of their Inlime campaigns. / Redacción
Other of the achievements mentioned in the document consists of the “organization and participation, without attracting attention to us (that is, towards the organization that Chepurnay runs) of a campaign against NATO” that took place in the town of El Campello, next to Alicante and in which they participated Julián Jiménezhigh school professor with a certain media profile and Julio César Ríospresented simply as an “internationalist” activist. And also reports as a result of his work an act in which the release of Pablo Gonzálezan alleged Spanish spy arrested in Poland shortly after the war of Ukraine began and exchanged in summer of 2024 with renowned agents of the Russian intelligence services, and to which his wife was invited Formerly Goaira.
But the result that Chepurnay is more proud of his brief addressed to Moscow is undoubtedly the prohibition that the University of Alicante welcomed a photographic exhibition in May 2023 by Dmitro Kozatskyi, a member of the Azov battalion just released from a Russian prison. Under the title ’86 days of siege ‘, in the exhibition there were images of the horrors of the siege to which the Russian troops submitted to the city of Mariúpol to the beginning of the Ukraine War for more than two months. The president of the house of Russia reports with indissimulated satisfaction to have mobilized “anti -fascists in Alicante”, bloggers with tens of thousands of followers such as propagandist Liu Sivaya already “Russian fellow citizens” to protest against the event and achieve its cancellation. “The coordination of these forces directly by the leadership of the Center achieved results,” the director of the house of Russia itself was boast in a paragraph of the text.

ALEKSandr Chepurnay recognition plate delivered by the PSOE Ministry of Immigration in Alicante. / Redacción
Paradoxically, Chepurnay, a mechanical engineer by profession, was not born in the territory of the Russian Federation, but native to Lvvv, one of the most identified cities with the Nationalist Ukraine. It has Spanish nationality, he is president of the Russia’s house Since 2011, coordinator of the Association of Immigrants from Eastern countries since 2004, while manager of the Iberrus Group, which helps to manage investments and business of entrepreneurs from postsoviet space, as specified in its account in the Linkedl social network. All this has allowed him to establish influential ties with local political leaders of the two Spanish majority parties during all these years. Specifically, in December 2024, the PSOE immigration secretariat in Alicante He gave him a recognition plate for “his invaluable delivery career, dedication for the benefit of the integration of migrants in the city of Alicante.” At the inauguration of the new headquarters of the house of Russia in Alicante in 2019, the mayor of the city attended, Luis Barcalaof the Popular party.

The mayor of Alicante, Luis Barcala, at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the house of Russia. / José Navarro
The newspaper, in an international investigation
A consortium formed by about thirty international media, among which are, among others, the newspaper ‘Le Monde’, the ‘Australian Broadcasting Corporation’ chain, the newspaper ‘The Irish Times’, in addition to the newspaper, publication of the Iberian press, have participated for months, under the leadership of the project for the investigation of the crime and corruption (OCCP) 50,000 emails obtained by the public television network of Denmark DR and belonging to the center for the support and defense of the rights of compatriots resident abroad, better known as Pravfond, a Russian state institution under sanctions in the EU since 2023. The main conclusions of the investigation consist are clear: the institution has continued to finance its activities through imaginative methods destined to mock the sanctions.
Among the numerous cases exposed, that of Aleksandr Franchetti, an agitator who was part of the paramilitary group that collaborated in the annexation of Crimea in 2014. He was arrested in Prague in 2021 and Pravfond granted him a sum of 33,000 euros to cover his defense. The defendant was acquitted in the first instance, but while waiting for the appeal, he managed to flee to Russia. Finally, he was convicted ‘in absentee’. As it seems to happen with the Russian house of Alicante, financing and influence in the media is another of Oravfond’s objectives. In Greece, for example, researchers found contracts with one ‘Club Dialogues’, a Greco -Russian association whose objective is to “offer a positive image of Russia in Greece and Greece in Russia.”
Countries normally do not finance the legal costs of their citizens abroad; Therefore, we must ask why the Russian State is willing to spend the taxpayer’s money, “analyst Edward Lucas, from the center for the study of European policy.
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