NatWest not to close Russian TV channel RT’s accounts in UK

MOSCOW, Jan 30 (PRIME) -- U.K. bank NatWest will not close accounts of a local branch of Russian multilingual television channel RT, a channel spokesperson said Monday.

NatWest earlier notified RT that all its accounts in the U.K. were closed, and the decision was not subject to any revision. A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attributed the decision to the bank’s internal affairs with the channel.

RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said earlier that the accounts had been closed due to political issues and announced an intention to litigate the move in international institutions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said no bank could make such decisions independently.

The bank’s parent group, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), said it would study the situation and discuss it with the client.

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