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The decision of former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond to front a weekly political chat show on Russian international channel RT has been across the British political and media mainstream. Why would a prominent Western politician risk his reputation by colluding with what many believe to be an propaganda instrument of the Kremlin?

RT鈥檚 interest in Salmond is easy enough to fathom. The channel has been sympathetic to Scottish independence, of which Salmond remains a leading proponent. You might expect Putin to back anything that undermines the UK, of course. Hence Sputnik, another state-owned Russian news outlet, an Edinburgh office.

Arguably, RT is more focused on the UK after to register as a foreign agent. The Alex Salmond Show was unveiled soon after , which is a means of extending reach ahead of Russia鈥檚 World Cup next year. RT also seems to have a following in Scotland, with pro-independence youth making up a significant proportion of its Twitter followers.

Editorial power

Salmond has been guaranteed full editorial independence, making the show with his own company and not in-house at RT. He he has appeared on RT several times and was once very critical of Russia鈥檚 actions in Syria. RT often publicises the full independence it grants star presenters, as a point of difference with the likes of the BBC. is another example and is made by the host鈥檚 production company.

The channel formerly known as Russia Today has definitely evolved since its 2005 launch, partly in response to worsening relations between Russia and the West. Having launched to project a positive Russia to the world, it morphed into the channel of choice for those hostile to perceived US hegemony, then became a propaganda weapon for the Russian state in the 鈥渋nformation war鈥� that following the 2014 Ukraine crisis.

On the whole, however, RT is a mixed bag. It has broadcast some crude, misleading 鈥� and 鈥� material as news. Some shows are so biased as to be an affront to the intellect. Yet other stories really do provide alternative perspectives on important events. RT鈥檚 Yemen coverage has been impressive, for example, while large parts of the Western media have turned a blind eye to the conflict.

It is therefore simplistic to characterise RT merely as a tool of Kremlin propaganda, with chief executive Margarita Simonyan dutifully carrying out endless instructions from Vladimir Putin. For one thing, Kremlin narratives must be made suitable for the foreign environments in which RT operates. This means ignoring some Kremlin positions and even contradicting others 鈥� RT鈥檚 of gay culture during the Sochi Olympics was a case in point.

Presenters such as Oksana Boiko, Larry King and George Galloway have strong independent personalities and are never going to be state operatives. Others, including and Martyn Andrews, have been unafraid to contradict Putin in the past (though in 2015). The further from senior management, the more likely it is that the 鈥淜remlin narrative鈥� will be transformed.

Donald Trump on Larry King鈥檚 show. RT

Meanwhile, a earlier this year was probably wrong to conflate RT鈥檚 output with the 鈥渉ackers鈥�, 鈥渢rolls鈥� and 鈥渂ots鈥� who interfered in US and French elections (the Western media their impact in any case). The report鈥檚 credibility was undermined by drawing on material from 2009.

Western drift

So you need a of RT to make sense of why someone like Salmond would work with it. Salmond鈥檚 show is a marriage of convenience between two opportunistic agents. It is also an indication of how the ideological landscape has reconfigured over the past two decades 鈥� as Western power ebbs to China. Brexit may be the dying gasp of Great Britain, clinging to its image as an imperial power capable of thriving alone; meanwhile, the rise of Scottish nationalism merely confirms the danger of the UK fragmenting.

It should also be said that Putin鈥檚 paranoid aggression on the international stage is Russia鈥檚 own version of the last imperial gasp. In this sense, the alliance of Salmond and RT is entirely logical: two antagonists seeking to dismantle the British state for different reasons.

The outrage in the UK at RT鈥檚 opportunism overlooks the growing global market for alternative output created by worldwide : the growing hostility in many parts of the world to Western superiority, to journalistic objectivity and impartiality, to parliamentary democracy, to Western capitalist monopolies.

Salmond, having exhibited open contempt for of the BBC and the London establishment against Scottish nationalism in the past, is clearly confident his RT show will not be met with the same outrage throughout Scotland 鈥� albeit current first minister Nicola Sturgeon a different view. All the same, imagine how far removed attitudes are likely to be in Latin America or India or the Middle East.

In the end, Salmond鈥檚 initiative is a gamble. Whether British politicians should appear on RT cannot be answered simply. It鈥檚 one thing to appear on Worlds Apart, where Boiko conducts interviews in an open and often vicious debate. It鈥檚 quite another to appear on RT 鈥渇lagship show鈥� Cross-Talk, where real debate is usually a pretence and Putin鈥檚 critics are outnumbered by his supporters.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the many other politicians from mainstream British political parties who have appeared on RT presumably consider that the importance of the issues they are appearing to talk about outweigh the risks of being seen to legitimise Putin. Equally, for others, the particular means that is RT will never justify such an end.

Salmond has in the past proved an astute reader of the political runes. RT represents for him a platform for indulging his career and promoting the causes he believes in.

It is therefore premature to conclude that Salmond鈥檚 latest venture marks his decline into irrelevance and disrepute. What it means for RT, and for the so-called information war is rather less clear 鈥� and perhaps still more intriguing.

, Professor Of Russian Studies, and , Sir William Mather Professor of Russian Studies,

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