Moscow on Saturday (January 21st) promised to take retaliatory measures against French media in Russia, after the bank accounts of RT France, the French branch of the Russian channel RT, which is suspended in the European Union (EU), were frozen. “The freezing of RT France accounts will lead to retaliatory measures against French media in Russia. They will be remembered if the French authorities do not stop terrorizing Russian journalists.warned a source within the Russian diplomacy, quoted by the Russian news agencies Ria Novosti and Tass.
Friday, the unions of RT France had denounced the freezing of the accounts of the chain in France. “With this sanction, nearly a hundred employees and around fifty journalists will probably fall into unemployment”were moved in a statement by the FO (Force Ouvrière) and SNJ (Journalists’ Union) sections of RT France.
According to them, the accounts “are frozen by decision of the State” French. “We received a letter from our bank on January 18 informing us that our accounts were frozen at the request of the Directorate General of the Treasury”an elected SNJ official from RT France told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Saturday.
The Ministry of the Economy had challenged this interpretation, assuring that the chain’s assets had been frozen in application of the most recent European sanctions. Contrary to the initial sanctions decided after the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, in February 2022, those which were taken in December 2022 foresee a “asset freeze” targeted entities, a source in Bercy told AFP. Among these entities is “ANO TV Novosti, parent company owning 100% of RT France”which consequently explains the freezing “assets of RT France”continued the same source.
Accused of being instruments of ” disinformation “ of the Kremlin, the media Sputnik and RT (including its French-language version, RT France) were banned from broadcasting in the EU from March 2, 2022, on television and on the Internet, following an agreement of the Twenty -Seven shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Seized by RT France, European justice confirmed this decision in July. This initial sanctions package only banned the broadcast of RT’s content in the EU, not the production itself. Until now, RT France therefore continues to produce and broadcast content, which can be consulted despite the ban by using a virtual private network (VPN), a service allowing you to browse the Web by circumventing the blocking. The French situation is particular, because since the suspension of RT in Germany, at the end of 2021, France was the only EU member state to host an RT subsidiary on its soil.