They came from Russia to observe the Scottish independence referendum and found the oddest of reasons to claim the result was rigged.
At first, Russia’s accusation that international democratic standards were breached because an agricultural show hall used for the count was too big looked like harmless nonsense. Yet the disinformation campaign succeeded in provoking a 100,000-name petition, demanding a rerun.
Britain was accused by Moscow at an international forum of provoking riots and depriving Scotland of the right to peaceful self-determination, so risking the type of violence seen in Ukraine in recent years.
Black propaganda exercises like this are likely to become more familiar as President Putin’s Sputnik news service takes off at its new British bureau, based in Edinburgh. Russia was condemned worldwide
