diff --git a/platypush/plugins/rss/__init__.py b/platypush/plugins/rss/__init__.py
index ae274af13d..f27d704cf8 100644
--- a/platypush/plugins/rss/__init__.py
+++ b/platypush/plugins/rss/__init__.py
@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ import queue
 import re
 import threading
 import time
-
-from dateutil.tz import tzutc
 from typing import Iterable, Optional, Collection, Set
 from xml.etree import ElementTree
 
 import dateutil.parser
+from dateutil.tz import tzutc
 import requests
 
 from platypush.context import get_bus, get_plugin
 from platypush.message.event.rss import NewFeedEntryEvent
 from platypush.plugins import RunnablePlugin, action
+from platypush.plugins.variable import VariablePlugin
 from platypush.schemas.rss import RssFeedEntrySchema
 
 
@@ -61,8 +61,14 @@ class RssPlugin(RunnablePlugin):
         self._latest_entries = []
 
         self.subscriptions = list(self._parse_subscriptions(subscriptions or []))
+        self._latest_timestamps = {}
 
-        self._latest_timestamps = self._get_latest_timestamps()
+    @classmethod
+    @property
+    def _variable(cls) -> VariablePlugin:
+        var = get_plugin(VariablePlugin)
+        assert var, 'Could not load the variable plugin'
+        return var
 
     @staticmethod
     def _get_feed_latest_timestamp_varname(url: str) -> str:
@@ -70,21 +76,20 @@ class RssPlugin(RunnablePlugin):
 
     @classmethod
     def _get_feed_latest_timestamp(cls, url: str) -> Optional[datetime.datetime]:
-        t = (
-            get_plugin('variable')
-            .get(cls._get_feed_latest_timestamp_varname(url))
-            .output.get(cls._get_feed_latest_timestamp_varname(url))
-        )
+        varname = cls._get_feed_latest_timestamp_varname(url)
+        var: dict = cls._variable.get(varname).output or {}  # type: ignore
+        t = var.get(varname)
 
         if t:
             return dateutil.parser.isoparse(t)
 
+        return None
+
     def _get_latest_timestamps(self) -> dict:
         return {url: self._get_feed_latest_timestamp(url) for url in self.subscriptions}
 
     def _update_latest_timestamps(self) -> None:
-        variable = get_plugin('variable')
-        variable.set(
+        self._variable.set(
             **{
                 self._get_feed_latest_timestamp_varname(url): latest_timestamp
                 for url, latest_timestamp in self._latest_timestamps.items()
@@ -95,7 +100,7 @@ class RssPlugin(RunnablePlugin):
     def _parse_content(entry) -> Optional[str]:
         content = getattr(entry, 'content', None)
         if not content:
-            return
+            return None
 
         if isinstance(content, list):
             return content[0]['value']
@@ -139,7 +144,7 @@ class RssPlugin(RunnablePlugin):
                     for entry in feed.entries
                     if getattr(entry, 'published_parsed', None)
                 ],
-                key=lambda e: e['published'],
+                key=lambda e: e['published'],  # type: ignore
             ),
             many=True,
         )
@@ -316,6 +321,7 @@ class RssPlugin(RunnablePlugin):
         return ElementTree.tostring(root, encoding='utf-8', method='xml').decode()
 
     def main(self):
+        self._latest_timestamps = self._get_latest_timestamps()
         self._feed_workers = [
             threading.Thread(target=self._feed_worker, args=(q,))
             for q in self._feed_worker_queues