Russia Today: NatWest To Close Russian Channel's UK Bank Accounts (bbc.com)

According to the editor-in-chief of state-run broadcaster Russia Today (RT), NatWest bank froze its account. Margarita Simonyan said, "They've closed our accounts in Britain. All our accounts. 'The decision is not subject to review.' Praise be to freedom of speech!" The Guardian adds: Russia has angrily accused Britain of trampling on freedom of speech after NatWest said it was closing down the bank accounts of the Kremlin TV channel Russia Today (RT). Russian MPs, the foreign ministry and human rights officials all condemned the move, and said the UK government was guilty of violating press freedom and of double standards. Simonyan said she had received a letter out of the blue from NatWest saying that it was pulling the plug on the broadcaster's accounts from mid-December. "We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities," it said.

Comments

For those wondering...

[Rei]

... while the focus in the US has been more about the hacking of the DNC and similar stories, if I had to wager, I'd guess that this is part of the new sanctions threatened against Russia by John Kerry and Boris Johnson over the bombing of Aleppo.

Re:For those wondering...

[Xest]

No, this is part of a change to UK banking law. It occured a couple of years ago and it's effected all sorts of people and organisations including MPs themselves - the law of unintended consequences and all that.

Basically, the law now allows for banks to be held culpable if they facilitate money laundering, and as such banks have started pursuing a zero risk approach to the topic. Therefore everything from charities merely accused of corruption, funding terrorism and so forth, through to MPs that engage with corrupt foreign leaders even if simply engaging on political fact finding missions have had their and even their families bank accounts shutdown.

This is merely a continuance of that, Russia is basically the global capital of corruption. Given the rise of the many billionaire oligarchs post-soviet era I'm amazed it's actually taken the banks this long to decide that supplying banking for the a Russian government run organisation is too risky.

So no conspiracy theories are really necessary, nor would they make any sense. When the same law is resulting in MPs and their wives, kids, and grandmothers having their bank accounts closed down as it is RT it's a complete nonsense to suggest anything nefarious is going on. It really is just about a private company choosing to play it overly safe in the face of a change in the law.

Given the impact on MPs themselves, I'd be surprised if this particular law change lasts long at all. I believe this also enshrined into law US overreach too, as my father who has never had any link to, nor ever been to the US was asked to prove he was not a US citizen (I don't know how you prove you're not a US citizen, I can imagine how you prove you are one) and avoiding paying taxes whilst living overseas under the FATCA regulations. It rather sickens me that my father had to provide information on his personal finances as a British citzen to the US authorities to allow them to decide if he's evading American taxes or not when he's got nothing to do with America or face having his bank account shutdown in a similar manner.

Yeah, so long story short, basically they've gone over the top in trying to crackdown on fraud and tax evasion and everyone and their dog (probaby literally) in the UK is being hit right now. On the scale of organisations deserving to be hit by this law though because of probable real actual corruption I'd say RT is pretty high up the list relative to all the people who really are unquestionably innocent and are also suffering the same fate.

Really, despite all the rhetoric from Russia about censorship, sanctions and such there genuinely is no such story here. It's entirely about our banking regulations currently having been made a complete ass.

Re:Nice to see the West pulling tricks from the

[fustakrakich]

its about as close to the KGB as CNN is close to the CIA

That doesn't like much of a stretch. We all have our lapdog press.

Re:Nice to see the West pulling tricks from the

[Anonymous Coward]

No one said Russia is a bastion of free speech, but the hyperbole of the "RT is the KGB" is absurd,

The KGB did A LOT More horrible shit than produce media with a pro-russian spin, i'm sick of stupid people constantly trying to make a point by finding the most extreme parallel they can imagine and then declaring confidently as if its fact..

Re:Nice to see the West pulling tricks from the

[guestapoo]

Talk about CNN, I see funny when CNN edited an interview with RT's Anissa Naouai, in which CNN’s Amanpour definitely planted to show her "guest" is a fool. Forget about "freedom ranking", I saw here is Anissa was much more open, transparent and smarter than Amanpour.

Re:Nice to see the West pulling tricks from the

[houstonbofh]

i'm sick of stupid people constantly trying to make a point by finding the most extreme parallel they can imagine and then declaring confidently as if its fact..

Damn right! Those people are literally Hitler!

Re:Any day now

[Rei]

A regional power with ~8k nuclear weapons. At least with the current administration, fear of conflict with this "regional power" has bound their hands pretty well.

There's no signs that Russia is going to "collapse any day now". It's not exactly on a positive trend, and remains fraught with demographic problems including large numbers of people who don't consider themselves Russian (or consider themselves Russian only second to some other category). And indeed they're playing with fire by, for example, using money to prop up strongmen like Kadyrov who have their own private militaries to try to keep peace in restive areas. But as for signs of any sort of "imminent" collapse, I just don't see it. Russia mains good control over the domestic messaging, and until the pocketbook starts contradicting too much with the message on TV, they'll maintain control.

Hypocrisy at its best

[smooth wombat]

Russia has angrily accused Britain of trampling on freedom of speech

As if Putin, and thereby extension Russia, knows what freedom of speech is.

If Russia is so worried about freedom of speech then perhaps they should start at home by allowing all those opposition and independent news organizations they keep investigating and shutting down to reopen. Lead by example.

The same would go for the Tartar news and radio organizations they've shut down since they've taken over Crimea from Ukraine rather than putting locks on the doors and imprisoning Tartars who run those organizations.

UK denies involvement

[bytesex]

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

Is there more to this

[Oswald McWeany]

I can't help wondering if there is more to this. For some reason, I get a bunch of Russia Today articles in my news feed. It's interesting to read their side of things from time to time. Heavily biased and full of pro-Russian propaganda, but I'm smart enough to wade through most of that.

That said, it's hard to see how any of it is illegal and deserving of being closed down. Is there more to this story that isn't public? Or is this as simple as Britain shutting off RT just to quiet it. I hope there is more to this and not some overly sensitive clod high-up abusing his power.

What reason was stated?

[Gravis Zero]

Before we get into the whole "was the UK gov involved" quagmire, for what reason did the bank state that they froze the accounts? Without evidence, everything is pure speculation.

Re:What reason was stated?

[Dunbal]

They gave no reason. RT published the letter on their website earlier. It was a vague corporate form letter saying the accounts would be closed because they no longer wished to provide services.

Re:What reason was stated?

[Cederic]

Closing accounts is very different to freezing them.

How about using Wells Fargo?

[Streetlight]

I wouldn't be surprised if Wells Fargo might be interested in setting up multiple accounts for Russia Today. They have the infrastructure in place to set up multiple accounts whether you want them or not, though that infrastructure has been sidelined recently.

Re:Pravda

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely you don't think US media is allowed to operate unfettered in Russia or China? If you do, you are very ignorant about the state of affairs.

RT takes direct orders from the Russia government. It is not at all comparable to corporate media (except in the fantasies of Russian propagandists with their endless whataboutism).

But the US really does have an equivalent to RT that's targeted at Russia, it's called Radio Free Europe: http://www.rferl.org/

There's also Radio Free Asia: http://www.rfa.org/

Take a look at those and get an idea of what real pro-western propaganda looks like. Then go look at RT for a while, and you'll begin to understand how those propaganda sites really are the mirror image of RT. Then you can begin to appreciate how the major media in the West are much more open, nuanced and honest than either one.

They are not "frozen" or "closed"

[aepervius]

They were given a two months notice. Whatever the reason. They can still access their assets and move them elsewhere. A PITA, yes, but a far cry from "frozen".