Kremlin-funded television network RT said Monday that Britain's NatWest bank is closing all its accounts in a unilateral decision that Moscow decried as politically motivated. "They have closed our accounts in Britain. All the accounts," wrote RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on Twitter. She later said that NatWest has not blocked RT's access to the accounts and it can still withdraw its funds.
Simonyan told TASS state news agency that "we consider this decision to be absolutely political." The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it would "demand the British authorities explain the situation." It suggested this could be "an act agreed with official London to eliminate a news resource inconvenient for British officialdom." This would be a "gross breach of the basic principles of freedom of speech," it warned.
In a statement sent to AFP, RT called the move "incomprehensible and without warning," adding it followed "countless measures" from Britain and Europe to "ostracise, shout down, or downright impede the work of RT." RT published on its website a letter from NatWest dated 12 October saying it has reviewed its banking arrangements with RT and "reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities." The letter from NatWest, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, does not give any reason for this decision, which it says is "final" and not open to discussion.
The bank says it will close RT's accounts by 12 December. Simonyan told the RBK business news site that she had "no idea" of the reason for the closure of the accounts, but suggested it could be linked to the fact that "we are expecting new British and US sanctions against Russia."
"Possibly it's linked to this," Simonyan said. The RT editor-in-chief told Rossiya-24 state television that the decision included some personal accounts of senior staff working in Britain. Senator Igor Morozov told RIA Novosti state news agency: "We must answer in kind and freeze the accounts of the BBC in Russia." RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has the slogan "Question more" and was set up to present news from the perspective of the Kremlin. It has been criticised as a slavish propaganda tool for President Vladimir Putin.
Ties between Russia and the UK are at their lowest since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine and Moscow's bombing campaign in Syria. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on October 1 that there was evidence that Russia's bombing of Aleppo qualified as a war crime. The foreign-language network that is primarily aimed at audiences in Europe and the United States broadcasts 24-hours a day in English, Arabic and Spanish.