End clap for RT France. The president of the French branch of the Russian channel RT announced its closure on Saturday January 21. “After five years of relentlessness, the authorities in power have therefore achieved their ends: the closure of RT France”, wrote Xenia Fedorova on Twitter. Earlier today, Moscow promised to retaliate against French media in Russia after RT France’s bank accounts were frozen.
Questioned by AFP, the French Ministry of the Economy replied that the assets of the chain had been frozen in application of the most recent European sanctions and not at the direct initiative of the French State.
Accused of being instruments of “disinformation” by the Kremlin, the media Sputnik and RT (including its French-language version RT France) have been banned from broadcasting in the European Union since March 2, 2022, on television and on the internet, following an agreement between the Twenty-Seven shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Seized by RT France, European justice confirmed this decision in July.