RUSSIA did try to meddle in the aftermath of the 2014 independence referendum, a new book has claimed.

It has been suspected that operatives working for Vladimir Putin helped spread misinformation on social media around the time of the vote. These claims have been strongly denied by Russia.

Luke Harding's new book backs this up, saying the aftermath of the 2014 independence referendum is an example of Russian interferance in Western elections over the past decade.

Harding, a Guardian reporter, was effectively expelled from Russia in 2011 after exposing a series of dodgy practises employed by the Kremlin.

He said minsinformation campaigns aimed at fostering division dated back to the time of the Soviet Union.

"Vladimir Putin is not an all-powerful super villain sitting in a cave with flashing consoles pressing buttons and making things happen in Edinburgh or Glasgow or Washington or London," he told BBC Radio Scotland today.

"He is a classic KGB opportunist who can sniff out weakness and tries to exploit divisions or conflicts within our own societies, including over Scottish independence.

"He's been doing quite well at corroding and undermining Western democracies from outside."

He added: "What Putin has done, I think rather cleverly, is update these old tricks for the age of Facebook and Twitter and he's got a much bigger audience," he told BBC Radio Scotland.

"This involves trolls – who were very active in support of Brexit during the 2016 referendum – but it was also involves in some crude espionage which we saw in 2006 with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London."

In his book, Harding writes: "Moscow’s playbook in the UK was the same as in the US. The goal was to promote divisive 'hot button' issues that would warm the electorate’s prejudices.

"Immigration, refugees from Syria, Muslim terrorism, attacks by ISIS sympathizers in Manchester and London ... all were pushed remotely from Russia.

"There is evidence that Prigozhin trolls promoted Scottish independence, the committee found.

"When the independence referendum was defeated in 2014, the same St Petersburg trolls spread claims that the vote was rigged."

In the weeks after the indpendence referendum, allegations of voting irregularities were shared on social media among certain pro-independence accounts.

It is thought many of these claims were first started by Russian troll farms.

Westminister's Intelligence and Security Committee last year created a report on Russia’s interference in the British political system but its findings have not been published yet, despite calls from opposition MPs.