Russia vows to retaliate after Paris freezes bank accounts of RT's French subsidiary
Russia says it will take retaliatory measures against a move by France to freeze the bank accounts of Russia Today's French offshoot, RT France.
"The blocking of RT France accounts will lead to retaliatory measures against the French media in Russia," Russia's TASS and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted an unnamed Russian Foreign Ministry source as saying on Saturday.
The measure "will be remembered," the source added, denouncing Paris for "terrorizing Russian journalists."
RT France, which had been already banned from broadcasting, announced closure of its accounts across the French banking system on Friday.
The French finance ministry confirmed the development, claiming that the accounts were blocked in line with the European Union's latest sanctions against Russia over Moscow's war against Ukraine.
The channel's director in France, Xenia Fedorova announced in a statement posted on Twitter that the measure had followed years of harassment by French authorities.
"After five years of harassment, the authorities in power have achieved their goal: the closure of RT France," she wrote.
EU authorities had in March last year banned RT and fellow Russian broadcaster Sputnik from transmitting in the EU bloc or online, accusing them of acting as mouthpieces for Kremlin "disinformation."
'Channel to close down'
Russia Today, meanwhile, cited Fedorova as saying that the recent measure had made it impossible for RT France to continue its operations.
She denounced the move as an "arbitrary measure" that amounted to censorship, adding, "Although, RT France is not on the sanctions list and has the right to operate in France, such a decision practically paralyzes our activities."
The accounts freeze was part of the latest European Union sanctions against Russia. The sanctions package is the ninth to be imposed on Russia since the onset of the war.
Launched in 2005 as Russia Today, RT has expanded with channels and websites in languages including English, French, Spanish and Arabic.
Russia says it started the military campaign in order to defend the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk against persecution by Kiev, and also to "de-Nazify" its neighbor.
Moscow has said the West piling sanctions on Russia and its pumping Ukraine full of arms would only serve to prolong the conflict, and preclude dialog.
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