The Russia report is finally out after Boris Johnson delayed it for ages. Some people have talked about the interesting things the tory government steered the investigators away from. Russian, state goal targeted, donations to the tory party and support for the leave EU campaign have helped move the uk into a new space. Detached from Europe, weaker.
The increases in defence spending US presidents have been calling for and the French excluding deals with the us and Australia for submarines to take on the orient have looked like a new country trying to get the old anglo club back together. To have some friends in the playground. Laughing at all of Washington’s jokes.
In Scotland, however, most people were talking about the indyref part of the story. Some people – Stephen Daisley – have told us that Vladimir Putin wanted a yes victory and was interfering in things to build support for it. Never mind that the evidence for this was non existent – with the only actual specific mention in the report being some exited but short lived social media talk about alleged voting irregularities after the vote.
Stephen makes the claim that the Russian state is prodding us towards independence, therefore independence is a bad idea. Or, at the very least, if you vote for independence you’re letting the bad guys win.
It’s easy to turn his argument around. How would a unionist writer like Daisley react if he found out Putin was against independence? Maybe he’d be happy to see the uk keep doing what he’s been paying the Tories for – destabilising the EU or making foreign military actions outside UN agreement more commonplace.
Maybe, more than anything else, protecting London from the regime change that would follow the ‘loss’ of Scotland means protecting the preferred destination for dodgy Russian oligarch money.
Would Stephen change his position? No, of course he wouldn’t, because he’s convinced Unionist. But why should it matter to people here, what Vladimir Putin wants is, as irrelevant, as what Donald Trump wants (he’s against Scottish independence).
The recurring, Unionist, geopolitical takes on independence are no doubt convincing to a lot of people, Union Jack emoji twitter laps it up. But, equally, a lot of people don’t. After all, what’s more dangerous to Scottish health and wellbeing – the far off Tory government’s policies, their austerity and brexit or Vladimir Putin’s much further off russia?
