Russian Premier's Visit to Hunterston and Kilmarnock (1967)

Premier Kosygin meets reporters at Hunterston

Thanks to President Putin's wars of aggression, relations between the UK and Russia are at a low point. In fact, things were a lot better in the middle of the Cold War. Despite the differences between the West and the Soviet Union, there was a lot of mutual respect and serious diplomatic efforts between the two countries. One of these even led to the then Soviet Premier and most important man in the Soviet Union, Alexei Kosygin, visiting Ayrshire for one day in 1967.

As reported by the Herald:

The Russian Prime Minister, Alexei Kosygin, arrived in Scotland on Saturday, February 11, 1967, as part of an official visit to Britain.

Stepping out of a special train that had brought him to Glasgow Central Station, he made a beeline for overall-clad workers standing near platform 11.

After showing solidarity with the workers, Kosygin then moved onto Ayrshire: 

Kosygin’s day-trip to Scotland also included official engagements in Edinburgh and a visit to Hunterston nuclear power station, in Ayrshire, where again he attracted considerable interest from wellwishers and the media.

While in Ayrshire he took in the Kilmarnock-Rangers league game at Rugby Park. Watched by some 23,000 fans he was presented to the teams before kick-off. It was a breathtakingly exciting match; both sides, remarked the Glasgow Herald’s football writer Glyn Edwards, “went at it hammer and tongs (perhaps it would be more appropriate to say hammer and sickle)”.

After that it was back on the train down to London. Unfortunately he didn't have time to visit the nearby Ayrshire village of Moscow. 

So, who won the game? Actually it was Rangers - 2-1, with some observers saying that Premier Kosygin looked happier there than anywhere else on his trip.

Kosygin meeting the teams at Rugby Park

The fans were also excited to see Mr. Kosygin, so much so that there was even a pitch invasion after the match.

Following the Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the next year, Kosygin started to lose power and influence in the Soviet Union, being eclipsed by his colleague Leonid Brezhnev, but he remained a major figure in the USSR until his death in 1980.