ALEX Salmond has suspended his show on RT until further notice following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The news follows criticism from Nicola Sturgeon, who said she was "appalled" that the former first minister was still broadcasting on the station.
Breaking his silence on the issue, the Alba party leader said The Alex Salmond Show would be suspended until peace "can be secured".
He said: "The efforts of every single person should be to re-establish the peace. That certainly is our focus, and therefore Slàinte Media have decided to suspend the Alex Salmond Show until that can be secured.
"There is no productive point in having the future of a television show dominate Prime Minister’s Questions as it did yesterday, when politicians should be rising to the occasion of the great issues of peace in Europe."
During PMQs on Wednesday, Boris Johnson twice made reference to Salmond as being one of the SNP’s “very own” while mentioning the former first minister’s show on RT.
The link drew fury from the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford, and was again noted by senior MP Pete Wishart in the Commons on Thursday.
Salmond said that Thursday's episode, which featured senior LibDem Vince Cable, would be the final broadcast before "peace is re-established".
READ MORE: LibDems furious as Vince Cable appears on Alex Salmond's RT show during Ukraine invasion
He said: "The show has broadcast over 200 independently produced episodes by a Scottish company run by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and I. Each and every one of the programmes has attempted to give a range of serious people of contrasting opinions a fair chance to state their views. That applied from our first interview with Carles Puigdemont to today’s interview with Sir Vince Cable."
Although he did not apportion any blame for the conflict in Ukraine, the former first minister hit out at "blatant attacks on freedom of speech from establishment political parties".
Salmond further said he wanted to make clear that there had "not once" been any editorial interference from RT.
He went on: "They have kept entirely to their commitments on this in line with the Ofcom code.
"In contrast, the blatant attacks on freedom of speech from establishment political parties are not just entirely hypocritical, but have whipped up a crescendo of personal abuse and harassment of my co-presenter Ms Ahmed-Sheikh (above) to the extent that she is now quite legitimately concerned about the safety of her family.
"All wars come to an end. Let us pray that this one will not escalate even further. Now every single person's efforts should turn to supporting attempts to regain the peace.”
There had been calls, backed by the First Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer, for RT to be taken off British airwaves altogether.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said RT was “demonstrably part of Russia’s global disinformation campaign”, but the Tory government said it was not their place to act.
Boris Johnson said: “We do not live in a country where politicians can close down media outlets. It is up to Ofcom to rule.”
Responding to the news of the show's suspension, SNP MP Stewart McDonald, who previously called for RT to be shut down, called on Salmond to "cancel it for good".
He wrote on Twitter: "Cancel it for good, you shameless man. RT is the propaganda outfit of a gangster state currently redrawing borders with Ukrainian blood.
"Peace will return but Putin will always be a war criminal."
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