Russia probes British media
RUSSIA announced on Wednesday it had begun analysing the output of British media working on its territory with a view to opening formal investigations into its objectivity, a response to what it called British attempts to curb Russian media.
Moscow said it was acting reluctantly after a decision by Britain’s media regulator on Monday to open a further three investigations into Russia’s RT to determine whether the Kremlinbacked TV channel had breached impartiality rules in its reporting.
That move, which stoked fears in Moscow that RT might be stripped of its broadcast licence, took to 11 the number of RT programmes under investigation in Britain and angered Moscow, whose relations with London are at a low after a nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in March.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ofcom, the British media regulator, had not yet explained its latest concerns about RT’s content and accused it of unfairly harassing Russian media.
“I can confirm that there will be a tough response to this whole show and its outcome,” Ms Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.
“The relevant structures in our country have started to study in detail the output of British media which are represented in Russia.”
She said London’s treatment of Russian media had forced Moscow’s hand, which is why it had decided to respond in kind and would be going further than merely calling out what it regarded as propaganda in the British media.
Ms Zakharova did not name any British media in particular, but called into question the objectivity of British newspapers and TV channels when it came to the Skripal affair, saying only a handful had tried to be balanced in their coverage.
Zakharova, who has previously warned that not a single British media outlet would be allowed to work in Russia if RT lost its British licence, lashed out at Ofcom.
“We have absolutely no doubt that what we have here is another attempt by the British regulator to limit the activity of our media in Britain which publish inconvenient facts for official London,” she said.
Meanwhile UK lawmakers said on Monday that “dirty” Russian money hidden in British assets and laundered through City of London financial institutions is undermining the government’s efforts to take a tougher stance against Moscow’s “aggressive foreign policy”.
Britain’s financial centre has been a big beneficiary of the massive flight of Russian cash since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. London remains the Western capital of choice for Russian officials and oligarchs who flaunt their wealth across Europe’s most luxurious destinations.
Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to clamp down on Russian money but a report by parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee accused her government of failing to back up its rhetoric with credible action.
“There is no excuse for the UK to turn a blind eye as President [Vladimir] Putin’s kleptocrats and human rights abusers use money laundered through London to corrupt our friends, weaken our alliances, and erode faith in our institutions,” said committee chairman Tom Tugendhat.
“The scale of damage that this ‘dirty money’ can do to UK foreign policy interests dwarfs the benefit of Russian transactions in the City.”
The Kremlin dismissed the report as an attempt to whip up Russophobia and to harm legitimate Russian business interests.
“This is nothing other than the latest step in line with unfriendly, unfair competition [against Russian business],” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The British report did not call for specific sanctions against named Russian companies or individuals, but said: “The use of London as a base for the corrupt assets of Kremlin-connected individuals is now clearly linked to a wider Russian strategy and has implications for our national security.”