HE likes a good photo op does Matteo Salvini. The leader of Italy’s populist and nationalist Lega has defined his career with a series of snaps.

There was the one when he waved a toy bulldozer to make clear what he wanted to do to the homes of Roma, or zingari, gypsies, as he called them.

Then the endless posing at ports in Sicily as he vowed to stem the tide of migrants – many desperate refugees – crossing the Mediterranean.

And finally and perhaps now most memorably when Salvini was photographed on Moscow’s Red Square wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the face of Vladimir Putin.

This, for the avoidance of doubt, was 2018, after Russia first invaded Ukraine, after Putin began to slowly but surely turn the screw on free speech.

Salvini is no fringe contender. He has been a deputy premier and an interior minister. His party, true, has now lost half of the 33 or so per cent of the vote it once commanded in polls.

But when he stood in Red Square with Vlad on his tee, the rightist was clear he wanted to change the EU’s attitude to Russia.

His aim? To get EU sanctions lifted from Putin for his first attack on Ukraine. Politics intervened – not least allegations of financial links with the Kremlin – and Salvini was never in a position to deliver on his aspiration for better relations between Brussels and Moscow.

After Putin’s new and more vicious war on Ukraine that Red Square snap is looking more and more like a liability. Earlier this month Salvini rocked up in Poland to offer his support to those helping refugees fleeing Russian bombing and shelling.

He did not go down well. As Salvini gave a press conference, Wojciech Bakun, the mayor of the Polish border city of Przemysl, emerged fluttering the same tee the Italian had worn on Red Square.

“We’d like to go with you to the border and to a refugee welcome centre to see what your friend Putin has done to these people,” said Bakun.

This was not the kind of photo op Salvini likes. He returned to Italy and another dip in the polls – though his space in politics is being taken by another rightist less exposed to Putinism.

Europe’s populist and far right are reeling from the war in Ukraine. They have been courted – and in some cases even funded – by Putin or his proxies. Chauvinistic nationalists of various hues have either openly admired the Russian autocrat or at the very least called for him to be “understood”.

There has been money and in-kind support for those who talk the right talk, usually in the form of appearances or positive coverage on propaganda channels.

A Labour MP in the House of Commons this week accused Nigel Farage of collecting hundreds of thousands in fees from RT, Putin’s main western mouthpiece, in just one year. This seems vastly exaggerated. But Farage did go on Putin TV and was paid for it.

Tucker Carlson, the preposterous Fox News host, has also proved particularly useful to the Russian leader. So much so that Kremlin TV executives have been told to use clips of his show as much as possible.

America’s right has long been drawn to the hardman in the Kremlin. Their leader – Donald Trump – has personally echoed core Putin messages. The 45th president has been there, done that – even if, unlike Salvini, he has not yet got the T-shirt.

Putin himself, in turn, has adopted the language of the new right, saying only this week that his country had been “cancelled”. He has been vocal on the bugbears of western reactionaries, such as trans and gay rights politics and Black Lives Matter.

In Europe, some fairly hardline conservatives have rejected Putin lines. Most of Poland’s right, for example, appear immune to his charms.

Others have proved vulnerable. France’s Marine Le Pen – of National Rally – had to pulp presidential campaign leaflets showing her with Putin. She had been downplaying an invasion last month. Now she condemns it. But questions about Russian funding and her previous misjudgment dog her.

Similar stories are being played out across Europe. Those Putin has supported, big and small, are turning on him.

But can we forget those who took money or TV support from a man most see as the continent’s most dangerous autocrat since, well, Adolf Hitler?

Scotland, on the edge of Europe, has avoided most of this. Our former first minister Alex Salmond, an embarassing has-been if there ever were one, made a weekly show for RT while saying some of the things Putin wants to hear.

Putin’s propaganda may have leaned towards the far right. But, as with Salmond, it has also platformed what Russians would call “separatists” – and even the far left. Why? Well, because Putin propaganda is basically just a trolling machine looking for opportunities for whataboutery. That was always about the extent of its interests in Scotland.

It was here that Putin TV’s main British voice, one-time socialist firebrand George Galloway, teamed up with the most fervently pro-UK party, All4Unity. Galloway’s co-leader Jamie Blackett has said this seemed like an unlikely alliance. I don’t think so. The Kremlin being involved with a right wing nationalist party is about as mundane as can be.

All4Unity has now collapsed, reduced to nothing more than a Twitter account. Salmond's micro-party, Alba, limps on.

But will those who supported rival attempts to get a man from Putin TV – whether Salmond or Galloway – elected to the Scottish Parliament show some remorse? Now that would be a photo op.

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