Why are senior SNP politicians so relaxed about appearing on RT (Russia Today)?
It isn’t hard to imagine how Russian President Vladimir Putin is feeling right now. His ally in Ukraine has been kicked out and as a consequence the country is expected to gravitate away from the Russian orbit and into the arms of the EU.
Until now Putin has been using Russian money to anchor Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine in a Russian-led bloc. However the jewel in the crown, Ukraine, now appears on the verge of breaking away from the Moscow line.
To say that Putin is displeased would be the understatement of the year. He is most likely indignant.
But Putin has been taking a two-pronged approach to the advancement of Russian interests. On the one hand this has involved the projection of power in places like Eastern Europe and Syria; but it has also meant undermining the West’s resolve in the face of unscrupulous Russian advancement.
Anyone who has ever tuned in to RT (Russia Today), the Kremlin’s propaganda channel, will understand perfectly well what I am talking about. RT is engaged in a wholesale misinformation campaign aimed at bolstering the prestige of the Russian Federation and discrediting enemies of the Russian state at home and abroad.
As I have previously written, Western commentators who appear on RT are unwittingly giving succour to a homophobic autocracy which behaves in a far more undemocratic and demagogic manner than our own government could ever dream.
That being so, one can understand RT’s enthusiasm for Scottish independence: the break-up of the United Kingdom would undeniably be in the Russian national interest. Russia fears the projection of Western power; and Britain is far greater than the sum of its parts when it comes to an international presence. Divide and conquer is not simply a worn-out cliché.
What is surprising is that the Scottish Nationalists are so keen to dance to the former KGB man’s tune. Why else would senior SNP figures choose so repeatedly appear on RT?
Here, for example, is Scottish first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond doing a set piece interview with RT just last year (at a time when Putin was ramping up his government’s anti-gay rhetoric):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ4zFqIvq5s
As well as Salmond, Scottish health secretary Alex Neil, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, external affairs minister Humza Yousaf, and Pete Wishart MP have all appeared on RT.
In a stunning piece of irony, Humza Yousaf likes to make a lot of noise about the UK’s human rights record. According to Yousaf, Scotland needs independence in order to expunge itself from the abuses perpetrated by the UK government. And yet he is happy to appear on RT!
Pete Wishart MP appears to think along similar lines. “With Independence, Scotland can make its own mark on the world, including the upholding of human rights,” he said in a recent interview.
What he did not disclose is that he has appeared on RT and – even worse – Press TV, the media wing of the Iranian theocracy.
The hypocrisy is breath-taking.
As Eric Lee recently noted, when RT describes itself as ‘news with an edge’ it literally means the edge of a Russian bayonet. The stories RT focuses on are “invariably ones in which the West, and in particular the USA, comes out looking bad”. When RT turns its attention closer to home the progressive mask drops, and is replaced by “the strident tone of late-Stalinist Soviet propaganda”.
In appearing on RT, the SNP are unwittingly endorsing the loathsome regime propaganda which appears alongside agreeable anti-coalition programming. They are also bolstering the foreign policy agenda of a government that is whipping up a tidal wave of prejudice against gay people and propping up Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad.
Russia is quite clearly lobbying for Scottish independence. The question is, why are the SNP so relaxed about dancing to the Kremlin’s tune?
A Yes Scotland staffer watching RT at their HQ
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81 Responses to “Why are the SNP so relaxed about dancing to the Kremlin’s tune?”
DC Rooney
Scotland’s struggle for self-determination? What!? I am a Scot voting No so am I fighting against self-determination? This kind of emotive language implicitly links Scottish nationalism to the struggles of occupied peoples to determine their own fate. Scotland is not in the same situation: we are currently part of a democracy and the rUK does not occupy us. If Better Together wins a majority in September this does not mean self-determination has been destroyed and Yes Scotland is not part of some grand struggle for Scottish freedom. The use of this weird emotive, Scotland-is-the-best language is part of a divisive nationalism which should have died decades ago.
Bill Cruickshank
The answer to your first question is YES you are voting against the right of the Scottish people to determine their own future. A No vote ensures that sovereignty remains at Westminster. Secondly it is difficult to see how we are “part of a democracy” when for 34 of the last 68 years, Scotland has been ruled by governments that were rejected at the ballot box in Scotland. A “weird” definition of democracy indeed. The right to self determination for all people’s is enshrined in the UN Declaration. It is neither “weird” nor emotive. What is “weird”, is allowing Governments that you reject as a nation to still have governance of your country.
I am also puzzled by your reference to “Scotland-is the-best language”. I did not use that sort of terminology and I have not seen it used by other YES campaigners. As far I am aware the YES campaign is focused on persuading the people of Scotland that Scotland’s decisions should be in Scotland’s hands. A phrase used by no less a being than the present Prime Minister of the UK himself, David Cameron.
Alec
No need to apologize… you haven’t given me a single ounce of reality. You’ve made a grand sounding claim, then cited something someone told you… you’re a fraud.
Bill Cruickshank
Alec don’t sound so deflated you just need to brush up on your homework. Talking of which I forgot to mention three other Independence organisations which might interest you: The Reid Foundation (dedicated to the late great Clydeside socialist Jimmy Reid), Liberal’s for Independence and the Scottish Independence Convention. By the way, Radical Independence, SSP, Reid Foundation and Labour for Independence are all socialist organisations. Hope this helps.
Alec
And Scotland has had it for all and more of the UN has been in existence, including two plus one specific opportunities for political disengagement which went over and above that mandated by the vague bit of pseudo-legal twaddle you’re referring to..
The same cannot be said of the various groups dispossed by those behind Russia Today and PressTV which the SNP mediocrities are happy to appear on, and which you’re singularly failing to address. Please don’t say “Saor Alba”… that’s not a language I – and, I have no doubt, you – speak, as do I’d wager more than 99% in Scotland. It makes you look like a racist nutjob.