PARIS — A French commercial court has officially declared Kremlin-backed media outlet RT France bankrupt, the company’s President Xenia Fedorova announced on Friday.
“The court of Nanterre took the decision to put RT France in liquidation — a media that has not pleased [French President] Emmanuel Macron since its launch and, which was sanctioned by the EU a year ago as a precautionary measure because of the conflict in Ukraine,” Fedorova tweeted Friday evening.
In March last year, the EU banned Russian government-funded media like Sputnik and RT, formerly known as Russia Today, from broadcasting in Europe after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine.
The sanctions, however, didn’t prevent the outlets from producing content. In the past year, the Russian channel continued to produce, publish and broadcast material, increasingly targeted at a francophone audience in African countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso.
Earlier this year, the French government blocked RT France’s bank accounts following an asset freeze decided by the EU in December. The company was then placed in receivership and has faced bankruptcy since.
RT France’s employees will be laid off in the coming days, Fedorova said.