RT Claims All Bank Accounts Frozen in UK

(AFP) – The editor-in-chief of Kremlin-funded television network RT said Monday that all its bank accounts in Britain have been closed down.

“They have closed our accounts in Britain. All the accounts,” wrote RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan on Twitter.

She said the channel had received a ruling that “cannot be reviewed,” adding “Long live freedom of speech,” but gave no further details.

A spokesman for RT told AFP that he had no further information but the channel may release a statement shortly.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has the slogan “Question more” and was set up to present news from the perspective of the Kremlin.

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.

It has a British outlet called RT UK that broadcasts from London.

While no more information was immediately available, an ongoing case involving claims against Moscow from shareholders of defunct oil firm Yukos founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky has led to freezes of Russian assets abroad including those of state media.