Analysis: How Scotland 'media bias' moans played in to Putin's hands

"If Sputnik News is propaganda then so is the BBC," declared Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp in a column in The Herald's sister paper, The National. "The UK state broadcaster doesn’t have a monopoly on the truth but in truth Sputnik’s global output is no more one-sided than anyone else’s – caveat emptor."

Mr MacIntyre-Kemp's column did not have much impact in Scotland and was out of kilter with the views of mainstream independence supporters, who, one fringe nationalist MP aside, have shunned Sputnik.

STORY: Experts warn Kremlin propaganda machine will back British Union 

After all, the last thing the SNP needed as it tried to push its pro-EU credentials across the continent after the Brexit vote was to be the linked to the bloc's biggest nemesis, Vladimir Putin. Senior SNP figures issued grave warnings about dealing with the mouthpiece a regime which outlaws independence movements.

Mr MacIntyre-Kemp​ dismissed such cautions as "ironic" and scored an international hit: Sputnik and other Russian government proxies made sure his National column was translated and broadcast far and wide. Russian audiences were told by RIA Novosti, one of the old Moscow agencies pulled in to the Sputnik empire after its creation, that The National thought "British propaganda was no worse than the Kremlin's". The same message appeared in Greek, Italian, Polish, French and Czech and other languages and not just on official Russian channels but on assorted blogs and websites with no formal link to Moscow.

Yes supporters picket BBC Scotland ahead of referendum

There has been much speculation about why Sputnik - only part of a huge propaganda machine - should set up a base in Scotland.

Some, including the agency itself, have cited cheap office space. Others have suggested there is a long-term strategic aim of weakening Britain, a rival nuclear power (I suspect Kremlin thinking is more short-term, which explains their constant flip-flopping on issues). But Scotland, after the independence referendum, did have a valuable resource for Russian propaganda-mongers: a sizeable but fringe group who see the mainstream media as an agency of the state or the establishment. Such people have an appetite to both consume and produce news and views which, to use Sputnik's slogan, "tell the untold".

Czech newspaper Vlastenecke Noviny runs Sputnik translation of National column 

The people targeted by Sputnik were the kind of independence backers who picketed the BBC ahead of the 2014 vote or who, borrowing terms from the Trumpist right in the United States, tweeted angrily about the "mainstream media" or "MSM". But it's a misunderstanding to think Sputnik or Russia backs independence. Their aim is to undermine confidence in democratic institutions, including a free press or accountable public broadcasters like the BBC. So Russian propagandists will equally seek to appeal to others with MSM gripes, such as the far left or far right. They really don't care about any particular cause. They just want to create an air of uncertainty and confusion and a ripe ground for Kremlin whataboutery when challenged on their own regime's failings.

How Sputnik France republished The National column

This is why Mr MacIntyre-Kemp's column is so important, nearly a year after it was published. It was exactly the message, I believe, that Sputnik wanted to amplify. Its global distribution amounted to "mission accomplished" for the Kremlin. Mr McIntyre-Kemp, to employ an cruelly frank Soviet term for those who unwittingly prop up a regime, has proven to be a perfect "useful idiot".