Russia protests closing of main state news agency’s bank account in Britain

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded on Monday that Britain immediately clarify why the London bank account of Russia’s main state news agency has been closed. A spokesperson for Barclay’s stated that the bank would soon be sending official notification of the account closure, but declined to comment on the reasons for closing the account.

The foreign ministry said the “closure” of a Barclay’s bank account on July 8 was linked to sanctions against the agency’s head Dmitry Kiselyov over Ukraine, adding it was demanding an explanation from the British authorities.

Kiselyov, the most prominent face of the Kremlin’s anti-Western propaganda campaign, was among those hit by European Union sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“To close the accounts of a leading information agency is censorship, a direct interference with the work of journalists”.

“What kind of freedom of the press or democracy we can talk about in Great Britain if one of the major news agencies in the world is prevented from working in the country?”

The media holding integrated RIA Novosti and state radio station Voice of Russian Federation into a single media monolith.

In mid-June the agency’s assets were seized in France and Belgium by order of local courts as part of a move to freeze Russian state assets after Moscow’s refusal to follow a 2014 ruling by the global court of arbitration in The Hague ordering Russia to pay up $50 billion in damages to the former shareholders of now-defunct oil company Yukos.