俄罗斯国有国际广播机构“今日俄罗斯”(RT)的英国分支在英国银行开立的账户被关闭，此举促使莫斯科指责伦敦攻击言论自由。

　　Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT — which broadcasts a pro-Kremlin alternative to “mainstream” media in the UK and other countries — said NatWest Bank had frozen all the channel’s British accounts.

　　播出有别于英国和其他国家“主流”媒体的亲克里姆林宫内容的RT的主编玛加丽塔?西蒙尼扬(Margarita Simonyan)表示，英国国民西敏寺银行(NatWest Bank)冻结了该频道的所有英国账户。

　　“It’s completely obvious that this is a political decision and a result of the wild pressure on RT in Europe and Britain recently,” she said in a statement. “There are open calls to boycott our channel, to close it and to prevent its work in every way.”

　　“完全显而易见的是，这是一个政治决定，是RT最近在在欧洲和英国承受的野蛮压力的结果，”她在一份声明中表示，“有人公开呼吁抵制我们的频道，关闭它，以一切方式阻止它的工作。”

　　Ms Simonyan said the freeze would not affect RT’s UK broadcasting operations. But the suspension of the accounts could worsen already acrimonious relations between Moscow and London, with some analysts warning that Russia could retaliate against UK media offices there.

　　西蒙尼扬说，银行账户被冻结不会影响RT的英国广播业务。但是，此举可能会使莫斯科和伦敦之间本已不好的关系进一步恶化。一些分析人士警告称，俄罗斯可能对英国媒体驻该国的办事处报复。

　　News of the freeze came after Washington and London indicated at the weekend that they were looking at possible new sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Syria.

　　冻结账户的消息传出之前，华盛顿和伦敦在刚刚过去的周末表示，他们正在研究针对莫斯科在叙利亚的行动实施新制裁的可能性。

　　Boris Johnson, UK foreign secretary, suggested Russia’s bombing of rebel-held eastern Aleppo was a war crime. He enraged Moscow last week when he called for antiwar demonstrations outside the Russian embassy in London.

　　英国外交大臣鲍里斯?约翰逊(Boris Johnson)提出，俄罗斯轰炸叛军控制的阿勒颇(Aleppo)东部是一宗战争罪。上周他呼吁反战示威者到俄罗斯驻伦敦大使馆外面去示威，此举激怒了莫斯科。

　　Within hours of the RT news, WikiLeaks claimed that its, founder Julian Assange — a frequent RT contributor now living in Ecuador’s embassy in London — had had his internet connection severed by a “state party”.

　　在RT新闻传出的几小时后，维基解密(WikiLeaks)声称，其创始人朱利安?阿桑奇(Julian Assange)的互联网连接被某个“国家机构”掐断。经常在RT上现身的阿桑奇近年一直躲藏在厄瓜多尔驻伦敦大使馆。

　　“We have activated the appropriate contingency plans,” WikiLeaks tweeted.

　　“我们已经启用了适当的应急计划，”维基解密在Twitter上表示。

　　Last week, RT’s US channel published a story about a WikiLeaks leak of further emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign director, before WikiLeaks posted them to its site and publicised them. RT said it was trawling the WikiLeaks database and found new emails there.

　　上周，RT的美国频道报道称，维基解密将泄露希拉里?克林顿(Hillary Clinton)竞选团队负责人约翰?波德斯塔(John Podesta)的更多电子邮件。随后维基解密将这些邮件发布到网站上，将其公诸于众。RT解释称，它是在查询维基解密数据库时发现新的电子邮件的。

　　RT yesterday released a letter from NatWest informing the broadcaster it had “recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities”.

　　RT昨天公开了英国国民西敏寺银行的一封信，通知该广播机构，该行“最近对贵方在我行的银行服务安排进行了审查，并得出结论，我行将不再提供这些服务”。

　　NatWest declined to comment. A source at the UK Treasury said the bank’s move to freeze RT’s accounts did not relate to new sanctions against Russian-owned entities or businesses.

　　英国国民西敏寺银行拒绝发表评论。英国财政部的一位消息人士表示，该行冻结RT账户的行动与针对俄罗斯国有实体或企业的新制裁无关。

　　With Russian state-owned entities subject to tight restrictions in the UK, banks have been severing ties with their clients to limit the risk of being hit by huge fines from the authorities.

　　鉴于俄罗斯国有实体在英国受到严格限制，英国各银行纷纷切断与客户的关系，以控制自己受到当局巨额罚款的风险。

　　But a former senior US intelligence operative said the move to shut down RT’s UK bank account, coupled with the apparent severing of Mr Assange’s internet access, would “certainly be consistent with something that western governments at large would be interested in doing”.

　　但是，美国一位前高级情报特工表示，关闭RT的英国银行账户，加上阿桑奇的互联网接入显然被切断，“肯定与西方政府有兴趣做出的动作相符”。

　　“It certainly sends a strong message to the Russians,” he said.

　　“这肯定会向俄方发出强有力的信息，”他说。

　　Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, wrote on Facebook: “It appears that when leaving the EU, London left behind in Europe all its freedom of speech obligations. As they say, start a new life without harmful habits.”

　　俄罗斯外交部发言人玛丽亚?扎哈罗娃(Maria Zakharova)在Facebook上写道：“看起来，在退出欧盟时，伦敦方面把所有言论自由义务留在了欧洲。就像有句话所说的，抛开有害的习惯，开始新的人生。”