NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to condemn her predecessor over his links to Russian state broadcaster RT.

Alex Salmond has had a regular show on the channel since 2017.

At the time, Sturgeon was critical, saying Salmond’s “choice of channel would not have been my choice".

She added: "Of course, Alex is not currently an elected politician and is free to do as he wishes, but had I been asked, I would have advised against RT and suggested he seek a different channel to air what I am sure will be an entertaining show.

"Neither myself nor the SNP will shy away from criticising Russian policy when we believe it is merited."

But Tuesday's publication of the Intelligence and Security Committee's long awaited report into Russian interference in UK politics has reignited the row.

The committee said RT, formerly known as Russia Today, put out "serious distortions" along with fellow state-owned broadcaster Sputnik.

A spokesman for Labour leader Keir Starmer said his party completely condemned the channel and advised "the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to do the same."

"She should make a public statement condemning it," they said.

The spokesman added: "He (Keir) would certainly say it is the wrong thing to do (appearing on RT).

"As Keir said, no member of the frontbench has been on Russia Today since Keir was put in charge and it is certainly not anything we would endorse."

Tory MP David Mundell said it was “abundantly clear that the RT network, controlled by the Russian state, is used to disrupt and destabilise other countries.”

He added: “As the Intelligence and Security Committee Report shows, the Russian state is a serious threat to our security and democracy so is it astonishing that Alex Salmond is still taking money from them.

 “In the context of this damning report, there can be no justification for a former First Minister and leader of the SNP, and advocate of independence, to be working for the Russian state.”

He said it was “concerning” that “so many nationalists” were unwilling “to call out this behaviour despite saying they have concerns about Russia.”

 He added: “After the report was published we should have heard the First Minister speak out, so I now call on her and other leading nationalists to condemn Alex Salmond’s ongoing relationship with the Russian state in the strongest possible terms.”

The Scottish Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton agreed with the Tory politician. He said:"Alex Salmond needs to accept that he has been promoting a TV channel that has a damaging agenda for western democracy. He should pull out now because he is insulting our country's democratic values by staying in his post." 

Taking to Twitter, the SNP's Stewart McDonald said it was untrue to say that the SNP hadn't criticised RT. 

"Now let’s take a look at all those Tory MPs - ministers, senior backbenchers and former committee chairs - who have taken cash for their appearances. This gets curiously little coverage," he added.

Yesterday, the SNP’s Stewart Hosie refused to be drawn on whether he Salmond was an “agent of the Russian state”.

The veteran MP – who sits on the Intelligence and Security committee and has been instrumental in pulling the report together – was asked: “Do you include the Edinburgh-based Sputnik press agency in this, Russia Today, and particularly, your former colleague Alex Salmond? Is he a de facto agent of the Russian state?”

Hosie said the reference to de facto agents was in relation to “accountants, lawyers, estate agents, people who do company formation, wittingly or unwittingly for people close to the Russian state”.

He added: “We actually say that there was in the run-up to the EU referendum a preponderance of anti-EU, pro-Brexit pieces on RT and Sputnik.

“What the report does not do is make any criticism of any individual programme maker or commentator or presenter. That’s not what this is about. It’s about RT and Sputnik as institutions who are able, very quickly, when they need to, to get out the Russian state version of events. It’s not a criticism of any particular individual at all. And I don’t think it can be much clearer than that.”

The report said that “the arrival of Russian money” in London resulted in “a growth industry of enablers – individuals and organisations who manage and lobby for the Russian elite in the UK”.

It added: “Lawyers, accountants, estate agents and PR professionals have played a role, wittingly or unwittingly, in the extension of Russian influence which is often linked to promoting the nefarious interests of the Russian state.”

The report says a large private security industry has developed in the UK “to service the needs of the Russian elite” which includes protection, seeking “kompromat [compromising material]” and to “help launder money”.