David Cameron entered the row over Alex Salmond’s praise of Russia’s Vladimir Putin yesterday, as the SNP leader refused to apologise.
The prime minister said Mr Salmond’s interview remark that he admired “certain aspects” of President Putin’s leadership had been a “major error of judgment”.
The first minister defended his position, insisting the comments on the former KGB officer were “reasonable and balanced”.
Mr Salmond gave the interview on March 14, before Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, and he made it clear he did not approve of many of Russia’s actions.
The remarks have been heavily criticised in recent days.
Speaking during prime minister’s questions at Westminster yesterday, Labour’s Sheila Gilmore told Mr Cameron: “Yesterday, Ukrainians in Scotland wrote to Alex Salmond expressing disgust and astonishment at the first minister’s statement that he admired President Putin.
“Will you support the statements of the Scottish Ukrainian community and Labour in condemning those statements, which support a regime which oppresses its minority groups and silences its critics?”
Mr Cameron replied: “I agree wholeheartedly with you. I think what Alex Salmond said was a major error of judgment.
“All of us in this House should be supporting the Ukrainian desire to be a sovereign country.”
Asked if he would apologise for the Putin comments, Mr Salmond said: “No, I think when people see the comments that I’ve made they will see that they’re perfectly reasonable. I said I deprecated Russian actions, meaning Ukraine and its human rights record.
“When I was talking about the pride in Russia I was talking about the Sochi Olympics which was obviously a restoration of Russian pride. That’s when the interview was conducted.”