For an alternately chilling and hilarious account of Russia’s objections to the integrity of the Scottish referendum see this story from Britain’s Guardian. Russia, of course, is desperate to tarnish the Scottish vote as a way of burnishing its own hastily called, pro forma Crimean referendum from this spring that resulted in the region’s absorption into Russia. A total of 97 percent of Crimeans were said to have voted for integration with Russia, even though only 58 percent of the population is of Russian background.
My favorite part of the Russian attacks against the Scottish vote was this:
The Kremlin propaganda channel RT, meanwhile, speculated that the result might have been rigged and expressed surprise at the “North Korean” levels of turnout.
Afshin Rattansi, the presenter of RT’s Going Underground show, said there were “international considerations”, such as the UK’s nuclear deterrent, which had affected the outcome. He said: “With the vote as close as this, with the mainstream media on one side, with a massive amount of people from Westminster running up to beg Scotland the other way, and certain recounts in certain bits of the poll, which way did the vote go, really?”
He added: “It is normally the sort of turnout you would expect in North Korea. Usually media here would go ‘we don’t believe it. How can it be nearly 90%?’