Natwest has frozen the accounts of the Kremlin-backed broadcaster Russia Today, according to its editor-in-chief.

Margarita Simonyan Tweeted, ‘They’ve closed our accounts in Britain. All our accounts. The decision is not subject to review.

Staff at the Kremlin-backed channel said that the Royal Bank of Scotland group, which includes Natwest, was refusing to service RT.


Нам закрыли счета в Британии. Все счета. 'Решение пересмотру не подлежит'. Да здравствует свобода слова! — Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) October 17, 2016

Russia Today claims that the bank said in a letter to their offices, ‘We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities.’

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.