Russia ‘prodding Scotland toward independence’: FP magazine

The Kremlin has taken a keen interest in the prospects for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, according to an article published on the website of Foreign Policy magazine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a Federal Security Service (FSB) board meeting at the FSB headquarters in Moscow on Thursday.

Photo: EPA/Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool

The article, penned by David Leask, is headlined “How Russia Is Prodding Scotland Toward Independence”.

Leask said that Russia has made overtures to the Scottish National Party and other independence movements, including Catalonia in Spain, “as it seeks to equate them with the breakaway statelets of eastern Ukraine.”

Politicians who support Russian President Vladimir Putin have “sought to compare the 2014 referendum designed to legitimize Russia’s military annexation of Crimea to Scotland’s vote of the same year, when 55 percent of Scottish voters came out in favor of remaining in the U.K,” Leask said.

“But the Scottish National Party wants nothing to do with Putin,” the article on foreignpolicy.com added.

(pk)

Source: foreignpolicy.com