Spain’s November 11 general strike over housing, wages, and living costs took place ahead of the November 29 snap election. The protests became a focal point for Kremlin FIMI networks operating across different ideological audiences and information platforms. Key topics:
Social Grievances and Anti-Ukraine Narratives for the Left
Electoral Manipulation and Conspiracy Narratives for the Right
Executive Summary
Kremlin FIMI actors exploited Spain’s November 11 general strike to advance contradictory narratives targeting left-wing and far-right audiences ahead of the November 29 snap election. Left-oriented networks invoked class solidarity, police repression, and opposition to NATO while blaming Spain’s socioeconomic problems on military assistance to Ukraine. Far-right actors instead portrayed the strike as an electoral operation orchestrated by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the left. These opposing narratives converged on discrediting Spain’s political institutions and Sánchez’s government, exploiting ideological divisions to intensify polarization ahead of the election.
Left-oriented FIMI channels combined protest mobilization with anti-Ukrainian messaging. Red Satellite, a Spanish-language FIMI channel promoted by InfoDefense Español (part of the Russian network run by military blogger Yuri Podolyaka), explicitly encouraged participation in the strike. Its appeal circulated through Friendship Between Peoples, a Basque-linked FIMI channel associated with a Donbas solidarity organization that supports Russia-backed structures, and through Liu Sivaya, a major Spanish-language pro-Kremlin FIMI channel.
Red Lines, a multiplatform FIMI outlet whose Odysee account belongs to Sputnik Mundo correspondent Fernando Fajardo, portrayed military aid to Ukraine as depriving Spaniards of public resources. Its video, titled “THIS IS WHAT SPANIARDS ARE LOSING BECAUSE OF MADRID’S AID TO UKRAINE,” added: “Spaniards can wait. Ukraine comes first.”
Exploiting a police investigation into Spanish ultranationalists trained in Ukraine, Red Lines also claimed that “while Pedro Sánchez hands money to Zelensky, Ukrainians are training Spanish neo-Nazis,” and alleged preparations for a coup against Sánchez.
Russian state-controlled RT en Español highlighted police confrontations during the strike, while Pravda España, the Spanish-language branch of the multilingual Pravda FIMI network, gave them an explicitly class-based interpretation.
Far-right narratives recast the same mobilization as government manipulation and political provocation. Pravda España portrayed the strike as electoral support for Sánchez. Europe Through a Lawyer’s Eyes, a Kremlin-aligned Russian-language channel run by Madrid-based lawyer Oleg Gubarev, explicitly claimed that “the strike is part of Pedro Sánchez’s election campaign,” while also questioning its legality.
La Bandera, a far-right outlet cooperating with Democracia Nacional (a participant in the Russian-hosted International Sovereigntist League “Paladins”), amplified Vox leader Santiago Abascal’s accusation that Sánchez had deployed “his mafia-like unions, their pickets and their thugs.”
Democracia Nacional president Pedro Chaparro similarly denounced a “corrupt and criminal government.” Another far-right FIMI channel associated with the same political environment, Here is the Voice of Europe, suggested that violence during the strike might be staged and blamed on the far right.
The conspiracy framing extended to Geopolítica Actual, a Spanish-language FIMI channel linked to Russian ultranationalist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin, which portrayed protests in Spain and elsewhere as manipulated toward “a technocratic totalitarian state.” Geoestrategia.eu, another Dugin-linked FIMI outlet, depicted street violence as engineered by economic elites.
Social Grievances and Anti-Ukraine Narratives for the Left
FIMI actors used Spain’s November 11 general strike over housing, wages, and living costs to connect domestic social grievances with opposition to military assistance for Ukraine. While some channels directly encouraged participation in the strike, others presented Spanish support for Kyiv as a financial burden imposed on workers and tenants.
On November 11, Red Satellite (Satélite Rojo), a Spanish-language FIMI Telegram channel, published (1) an explicit appeal to join the general strike:
“We encourage everyone following us from the Spanish state to join the November 11 general strike and participate in demonstrations against employers, landlords and the government.”
The post emphasized that “the government has already handed €20 billion to the Nazi regime in Kyiv, increased military spending more than ever [...] and ignored the fact that there are 50 evictions every day.” The channel describes itself as part of an “anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist information struggle” and has been publicly promoted (2) by InfoDefense Español, the Spanish-language branch of the Russian FIMI network run by military blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
The appeal was then reposted by Friendship Between Peoples (Herrien Arteko Adiskidetasuna), (3) a Basque- and Spanish-language FIMI channel operated by a member of the Basque Country–Donbas Solidarity Committee (Euskal Herria-Donbass Elkartasun Komitea), (4) an organization that has supported Russia-backed structures in Donbas since 2014. (5) It was subsequently circulated (6) by Liu Sivaya, one of the largest Spanish-language pro-Kremlin FIMI channels, which EK Stratcom has previously documented (7) as part of Russia’s information-influence ecosystem targeting Spain.
The FIMI outlet Red Lines (Líneas Rojas) operates across several platforms, including Telegram, X, (8) and the video-hosting platform Odysee. Its official Odysee account (9) belongs to Fernando Fajardo, a contributor and Moscow correspondent for the Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik Mundo. (10) Following Spain’s announcement of a €437 million military assistance package for Ukraine, the channel published (11) a video titled “THIS IS WHAT SPANIARDS ARE LOSING BECAUSE OF MADRID’S AID TO UKRAINE.” The video stated:
“Tenants, railway passengers and the residents of Ceuta can keep waiting. What could be done in Spain with that money?” It added: “Spaniards can wait. Ukraine comes first.”
The same material appeared on the channel’s X profile (12) on November 10, the day before the general strike. Although the video did not explicitly mention the strike, its focus on housing and public expenditure closely matched the grievances driving the mobilization.
On November 11, Red Lines developed the argument further by exploiting a Spanish police investigation (13) into the ultranationalist organization Núcleo Nacional. El País had reported on November 10 that members of the organization had received paramilitary training in Ukraine and established contact with the 12th Azov Brigade. Red Lines presented these findings under the headline “While Pedro Sánchez hands money to Zelensky, Ukrainians are training Spanish neo-Nazis.” It subsequently claimed:
“Training in Ukraine for a coup against Pedro Sánchez’s government while he keeps giving Spaniards’ money to Zelensky so he can keep funding the Azov terrorists in turn.” (14)
RT en Español, the Spanish-language branch of the Russian propaganda outlet RT, separately covered (15) the strike through reports emphasizing police confrontations and political tensions ahead of the November 29 election. Its November 11 reporting (16), (17) described officers “violently charg[ing] the crowd” during demonstrations in Madrid.
Pravda España, the Spanish-language branch of the multilingual Pravda (Portal Kombat) FIMI network, gave the confrontations an explicitly class-based interpretation, (18) publishing footage described as “Spanish national police protecting capitalist businesses during today’s general strike.”
This activity is significant because it inserted Kremlin-aligned messaging into an independently organized labor mobilization.
By framing military assistance to Ukraine as a direct threat to Spanish workers’ interests, FIMI actors turned genuine socioeconomic grievances into arguments against support for Kyiv.
The use of class solidarity and anti-establishment rhetoric allowed these narratives to reach left-wing audiences without relying on overtly pro-Kremlin appeals, while direct calls to join the strike brought this messaging into the protest itself.
Electoral Manipulation and Conspiracy Narratives for the Right
While some FIMI sources encouraged participation in Spain’s November 11 general strike, others portrayed the mobilization as an electoral operation designed to benefit Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ahead of the November 29 snap election. On November 6, Pravda España challenged (19) Sánchez’s description of the strike as support for a social cause rather than an action against a particular political actor. The channel asked:
“What the hell is the point of a strike that isn’t against anyone, other than awkwardly and forcibly supporting a political party during an election campaign?”
It dismissed the mobilization as “one of the most absurd initiatives of the left-wing crowd.”
The claim that the strike served Sánchez’s electoral interests also appeared in the Russian-language information space in Spain. On November 10, Europe Through a Lawyer’s Eyes, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel operated by Madrid-based lawyer Oleg Gubarev, questioned (20) the strike’s legality under Article 11 of Royal Decree-Law 17/1977, which prohibits strikes pursued for political purposes unrelated to workers’ professional interests. The channel argued that housing demands were being used to disguise an electoral campaign aimed at preventing a right-wing victory, declaring:
“The strike is part of Pedro Sánchez’s election campaign.”
The portrayal of the strike as government-directed extended into Spanish far-right networks with documented Kremlin connections. La Bandera is a Spanish far-right outlet with an established media partnership (21) with Democracia Nacional, whose representatives participated in the 2025 St. Petersburg founding congress of the Russian-hosted International Sovereigntist League “Paladins.” (22) The outlet amplified (23) a quote by Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s right-wing Vox party, who accused Sánchez of sending “his mafia-like unions, their pickets and their thugs” against workers and business owners.
On November 11, La Bandera described (24) the strike as a failure concealed by violent pickets, roadblocks, and intimidation, claiming that “Spaniards have decided to go to work.”
On X, Pedro Chaparro, president of Democracia Nacional, similarly accused (25) the unions of staging a mobilization agreed with a “corrupt and criminal government,” contrasting it (26) with an earlier sanitation workers’ strike that he presented as an authentic labor struggle.
La Bandera further reframed confrontations between police and demonstrators as manufactured political theater. Following reports that Spanish performer and activist Samantha Hudson had been pepper-sprayed during a police intervention on Madrid’s Gran Vía, the outlet claimed (27) that protesters had deliberately provoked confrontation “to fuel the narrative of a ‘repressive state.’” It subsequently ridiculed Hudson and the wider protest movement on X. (28)
On November 10, Here is the Voice of Europe (Aquí la Voz de Europa), a Spanish far-right Telegram channel associated with Democracia Nacional’s information environment, used (29) an unrelated fatal explosion in Oviedo (30) to suggest the possibility of a political provocation during the following day’s general strike. The explosion, which killed a police officer and seriously injured another, occurred during a police response to a shooting reportedly stemming from a neighborhood dispute.
The channel connected the incident with separate bomb alerts (31) in Zaragoza, Málaga, and Ibiza, speculating that “the conditions seem to be in place for those who are so fond of certain symbolism to pull one of their tricks and blame it on the ‘far right.’”
The portrayal of protests as political manipulation extended into a broader conspiracy narrative about the deliberate engineering of social unrest. On October 24, Geopolítica Actual, a Spanish-language FIMI channel that promotes themes associated with Russian ultranationalist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin’s Eurasianist worldview, posted a link to its YouTube video, claiming (32) that European demonstrations were being directed by unidentified forces. In the video, the channel’s co-founder José Luis Montáns Suárez argued:
“Of course there are people pulling the strings [...] managing chaos, shaping mass consensus to ultimately achieve [...] a technocratic totalitarian state.” (33)
The video, which discussed protests in Spain and France, was subsequently reposted (34) by the Spanish-language FIMI channel Nuevos Paradigmas. On November 11, Geoestrategia.eu, a Dugin-linked (35) FIMI outlet directed by Juan Antonio Aguilar, published (36) an article claiming that street violence was deliberately manufactured through infiltrators, digital manipulation, and economic elites. It argued that “real grievances are exploited and redirected toward the destruction of the social fabric.”
The contrasting narratives reveal how Kremlin FIMI actors exploit the same political crisis across opposing ideological audiences. Left-wing networks invoke class solidarity, anti-NATO sentiment, and police repression, while far-right actors portray the government and the left as jointly responsible for electoral manipulation, intimidation, and manufactured unrest.
Despite their ideological contradictions, both strands converge on delegitimizing Sánchez’s government ahead of the November 29 election.
Combined with claims that public resources are being diverted to Ukraine while domestic problems remain unresolved, these narratives lay the groundwork for a broader portrayal of Sánchez and the liberal political establishment as responsible for Spain’s political and socioeconomic failures.
