Russia Today has had it's UK bank accounts frozen.

gettothechopper · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:28

hold up, the story is that their bank (not the government) closed (not "frozen") RT's account
The bank hasn't said why, it could be for a number of reasons, many of which the bank is entitled to do

yer_averagejoe · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:35

If you can't trust the BBC, you certainly can't trust RT.

I'm not sure how plainly I can put it. It seems some pro RT folk think it gives them a better/another perspective on the world. It doesn't .

Hades · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:36

gettothechopper said:
hold up, the story is that their bank (not the government) closed (not "frozen") RT's account
The bank hasn't said why, it could be for a number of reasons, many of which the bank is entitled to do

Most likely RT just got added to the sanctions list. That would cause their accounts to be closed and all payments to and from any overseas account to be halted.

TJM · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:38

Some proper nonsense in the news today.

The Mail's article has a copy of the letter from NatWest. They are withdrawing their banking services from RT in about two months and any credit still on their accounts at that time will be returned to them as a cheque. No-one's accounts or money have been frozen by the Treasury or courts.

mmj_uk said:
Julian Assange had his internet cut off as well, we are becoming worse than China for censorship. I suppose it's a lot easier to allow free speech when you control all of the media but not so when you don't.

Assange blamed a 'state actor'. How does an end user know the cause of an internet outage?

gettothechopper · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:40

Hades said:
Most likely RT just got added to the sanctions list. That would cause their accounts to be closed and all payments to and from any overseas account to be halted.

Doesn't seem so - government says its the bank and up to them what they do

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/17/russia-todays-uk-bank-accounts-frozen-says-editor

maybe RT was doing something dodgey and the bank didnt like it? or maybe they did too many negative news reports on natwest

sityeuropa · 17 Oct 2016 at 17:41

Not forgetting the bank is owned by the UK government.

RaohNS · 17 Oct 2016 at 18:03

sityeuropa said:
Not forgetting the bank is owned by the UK government.

Indeed. An overlooked facet

Werewolf · 17 Oct 2016 at 18:12

gettothechopper said:
Doesn't seem so - government says its the bank and up to them what they do

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/17/russia-todays-uk-bank-accounts-frozen-says-editor

maybe RT was doing something dodgy and the bank didn't like it? or maybe they did too many negative news reports on natwest

I suspect it'll be something along the lines of one of the RT accounts has been linked to either an organised crime group/member, or they're not happy with the accounts/how the money can be traced.

The banks are under a huge number of regulations to stop money laundering and make sure the accounts are not used for criminal purposes, or to move money to or from people and countries that are under sanctions that they close a lot every year.
IIRC HSBC is also under extra scrutiny from the US because in the past it's failed (and been fined) so is likely to be extra cautious.

So it could be as simple as someone who is being paid through or paying into RT is on the sanctions list.

gettothechopper · 17 Oct 2016 at 18:20

Werewolf said:
So it could be as simple as someone who is being paid through or paying into RT is on the sanctions list.

this is pretty likely - RT not under sanction, but transactions going to accounts that are

LeeUK · 19 Oct 2016 at 10:46

How will they pay their UK staff, will they get paid in Ruble directly from Russia?

Werewolf · 19 Oct 2016 at 11:10

There is apparently some debate as to whether it was even RT's accounts that got closed, there is a claim that they've altered a letter sent to one of it's suppliers or something.