British bank NatWest has frozen accounts for the state-backed Russian broadcast service Russia Today, the network announced Monday.
“We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities,” said a letter sent by the bank’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The bank said the network’s funds would be returned by Dec. 12. “We assure you that we have only reached this decision after careful consideration, however our decision is final and we are not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it,” the bank added.
“Our accounts in the UK have been closed. All accounts. ‘The decision is not subject to revision’. Long live freedom of speech!” RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said in a message on Twitter.
Maria Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, echoed the sentiment. “It looks like, as it leaves the EU, London has decided to leave behind all its obligations towards freedom of speech. As they say, best to start a new life without bad habits,” Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
The network, which is backed by the Russian government, has become the subject of American criticism over the course of the presidential election. Democrats have sought to portray the network as a propaganda arm of the Kremlin, which has been linked to cyberattacks this year on the Democratic Party.
The issue exacerbated tensions that had already existed as a result of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, as well as its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad in the midst of that country’s conflict. Speaking in London on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the U.S. “has not taken any options off the table” for responding to Russia’s activity in that region.
British officials denied any involvement with the account closure by NatWest. “This isn’t something that has come out of the Treasury,” an unnamed British official told The Guardian, adding that no new sanctions have been imposed on Russia since February 2015.
The action comes the same day that WikiLeaks, which has published most of the documents leaked from Democratic officials this year, announced that a state-backed actor had cut Internet access to Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012.
