Alex Salmond: Alba Party leader questions evidence of Russian interference in 2014 Scottish independence referendum as he defends links to Kremlin-backed broadcaster Russia Today
Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the Alba Party leader also refused to say whether he believed Russia was responsible for the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England.
Mr Salmond said Russia “certainly” did not meddle in the independence vote seven years ago, despite a report published by UK intelligence officials in 2020 concluding that it had.
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Hide AdLast year, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Scots not to be “complacent about the possibility of Russian interference in our democratic processes".
But on Wednesday morning, her predecessor said “anybody” who analysed the intelligence report “will think it laughable, in my opinion.”
He insisted: “The only publicity I saw in the 2014 referendum was a suggestion in the Sunday Herald newspaper that David Cameron had asked Vladimir Putin to intervene on the No side - and President Putin refused to do so, which of course was exactly the proper thing to do.”
Mr Salmond added: “Of course other heads of state unfortunately did interfere, President Obama, for example. But other heads of state - Angela Merkel - refused to accept David Cameron's invitation to intervene.
“My view is states shouldn't interfere in other states’ elections.”
Asked whether he believed Russia had meddled in election in the United States, Mr Salmond said he thought the evidence “was very slight”.
“I think that many states decide in one way or another to interfere in other States elections. I don't think they should do so - and I don't care if it's Vladimir Putin or President Obama,” he told GMS.
Mr Salmond also said evidence that Russia was responsible for the 2018 poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury was “contested”, reiterating his call for international tribunals to investigate the case.
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Hide AdHe also defended his involvement with the Alex Salmond Show, which is produced independently and broadcast on the Russian state media channel RT. He said: “not a single word of editorial instruction or even suggestion has been made to by me by anybody in RT, and the programme stands on its own merits.”
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