ALEX Salmond’s new weekly chat show on Russia Today is probably the most controversial TV programme of the year.

There have been questions in parliament about the show, petitions and Downing Street even issued a statement condemning the show.

Yesterday was the show’s first broadcast, and it received generally positive reviews, and featured a bona fide scoop in the form of an interview with Carles Puigdemont, the exiled President of Catalonia.

There was still some discomfort at the politician turned journalist’s choice of network.

Critics say that RT, the channel formerly known as Russia Today, headquartered in Moscow is effectively an arm of the Russian government.

They say the channel’s editorial policy is ultimately dictated by Vladimir Putin, the former KGB man turned authoritarian leader who has clamped down on press freedom and criticism.

Countless column inches have been written accusing the former First Minister of being a “useful idiot” for Moscow.

Salmond started his debut show thanking the howls of outrage in the press for the publicity.

He stressed to viewers that it would be him and his production company and not Putin who has full editorial control of the show.

“So why not RT?” he asked.

As if to prove his editorial independence, one of the packages on the half-hour programme was on LGBT rights, and last week’s apology from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to gay men persecuted by the state during less enlightened times.

In 2013, Russia introduced the “gay propaganda” law where individuals found guilty of promoting “homosexual behaviour among minors” can be fined up to 5,000 roubles.

Putin’s government say portraying same-sex relations as socially acceptable and of equal value to heterosexual relations threatens the intellectual, moral, and mental well-being of children.

In other words, Russian law says being gay or lesbian poses a danger to children.

So in Salmond’s show, during a package presented by National columnist and former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, those interviewed talked positively about homosexuality in a way that would likely be illegal in Russia. The programme even included a clip of senior Tory MP Crispin Blunt criticising the gay “purge” in Chechnya.

The show’s big interview with Puigdemont, recorded in a secret location in Brussels, was picked up by plenty of media in Catalonia and Spain.

Puigdemont said there is no future for Catalonia in Spain under these circumstances.

Puigdemont added: “...the mentality of the Spanish state, particularly from [Prime Minister] Mr Rajoy, looks at the unity of Spain like a religion. It is not a political matter, it is a spiritual, or [a religious] question about faith.

“So, there is an incapability, an intellectual incapacity to admit the possibility, the real possibility, that Spain could be different in future. Without Catalonia, or without the Basque Country, if the will of the people want this.”

Commenting on the criminal charges brought against him by the Spanish State, which could see him sent to prison for up to 30 years, he said:

“Did you see the march in Barcelona last week? Full of people demanding freedom. No one demands freedom for criminals. We are not criminals.

“We are legal and legitimate representatives of Catalonia.”

“The message is to be confident, passionate and resilient because we will win. We will succeed. Finally, democracy will prevail.”

Puigdemont challenged Spain and “the European authorities” to accept the result of the upcoming Catalan elections if pro-independence parties are victorious.

The politician, facing charges of sedition, called for the Catalan people to be “confident” and “resilient” because “we will win, we will succeed, finally democracy will prevail.”

And at the end even some of his harshest critics accepted that the show had been a solid half hour.

David Torrance, the journalist, and Salmond’s unofficial biographer, who has written a number of pieces criticising the former First Minister’s judgement for getting into bed with Putin, tweeted: “First episode of the @AlexSalmond show on RT actually a reasonable half hour of TV: good guests, AS an amiable enough host & it’s obviously well resourced.”

“But, of course, that’s not the point,” he added.