ALEX Salmond has launched a staunch defence of Kremlin backed TV station, Russia Today.
The Former First Minister has come under renewed pressure to walk away from his weekly show on the channel, after Russia became the UK’s prime suspect in a chemical attack in Salisbury that has left three people seriously ill.
But in yesterday’s programme he rejected accusations he was a “useful idiot” for Vladimir Putin, and said the broadcaster allowed him to say exactly what he wanted.
READ MORE: Ofcom dismiss 'David Torrance' SNP party broadcast complaint
He told viewers: “I hold no brief for the Kremlin nor am I required to have. No one has tried to influence the content of this show in any way, shape or form whatsoever,” Salmond argued.
RT, the ex-SNP leader argued, was no different from Sky, ITV and the BBC.
Though he wasn’t mentioned by name, Salmond’s relationship with the broadcaster was brought up during First Minister’s Questions, with Tory leader Ruth Davidson pushing Nicola Sturgeon to distance herself from her predecessor
“Russia Today exists for the sole purpose of promotion the agenda of Putin’s regime, and it serves him well in that regards. It acts as an apologist for a government, which all the evidence show has directly or indirectly been culpable in a chemical attack on Britain’s soil,” Davidson said.
The First Minister said she had made her opinions on RT clear in the past. Last November when Salmond had first announced the show, Sturgeon said she “would have advised against RT and suggested he seek a different channel to air what I am sure will be an entertaining show.”
In the chamber, she told the Tory leader: “I have not and will not change these views.”
But, Sturgeon added: “If we want to look at it from that perspective. I think there are other issues which require to be addressed,” asking the Tory leader to make “her views known on matters like Russian donations to political parties”.
Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of a Russian oligarch, bid £20,000 at a recent fundraiser, for lunch with Davidson.
Yesterday LibDem Alex Cole Hamilton suggested Sturgeon should ban Salmond from returning to front line politics.
The First Minister’s spokesman said Cole Hamilton’s suggestion was neither liberal or democratic.
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