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here on RT International to discuss uh

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this decision well uh first off um what

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are your thoughts what's your impression

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of what's going

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on well it's shocking but not surprising

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it comes at a time when it's been

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obvious in Parliament and in the Deep

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state that there is a state of anxiety

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about the growing influence and

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popularity of RT in the country and this

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coincides with

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uh simultaneous fall in The credibility

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of the British State broadcaster the BBC

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and the British don't like that it

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throws uh a very sharp light on the BBC

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that fewer and fewer people are watching

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it and less and less who are are paying

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very much attention to what it says it's

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just crude British State propaganda so

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they've been nervous about RT for some

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time hased RT has posed some serious

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competition uh to a lot of uh networks

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but uh just um looking at this

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particular situation that we have at

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hand here um we are waiting for some

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sort of uh explanation uh from uh the

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bank and so far we haven't received any

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so why is it that the bank um hasn't uh

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come forward with any explanation so far

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why are they refusing to explain

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themselves

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well they haven't and they won't and the

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answer is clear in your news package

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this bank is owned by the British

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government this is a decision taken by

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the British government it flows from the

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discussions of uh the last few weeks

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about

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intensifying sanctions against Syria and

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Russia over what's happening in the

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Middle East over what's happening in the

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Ukraine what's happening on the

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International level the British state

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has told this bank which it owns to

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close this account it has the benefit

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for them of not being a formal break in

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diplomatic relations but being a

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significant spanner in the works of

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Russia's uh uh preeminent uh broadcaster

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RT it means the British don't have to

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answer questions about it and no one can

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force the bank to answer questions about

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it so it's quite acutely contrived

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spanner to throw in the works to show

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Russia uh of increasing levels of

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British

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unhappiness so uh in other words this

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decision uh reflects the Noto Rosy uh

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state of relationship between uh Russia

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and the UK

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right there's been a long history of

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this I don't want to T backs your

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historical memory but back in the early

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1920s the British government was

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invading Russian State Property then

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Soviet state property for example was

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constantly uh breaching diplomatic Norms

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in its relations with Russia Britain

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even invaded Russia in the Civil War

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after the October Revolution Britain has

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had bad relations with Russia for almost

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a century and uh I think this is just

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another miserable chapter that the

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British have written into the history

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books the good news is this is the 16th

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year of the 21st century and no one no

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one certainly not Boris Johnson can stop

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the British people getting access to RT

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and they will in increasing numbers well

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certainly our countries uh have uh

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enjoyed a very rich history uh there

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were good pages in it and not are good

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Pages uh pages to be proud of and uh

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some of the things that um actually uh

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raised a lot of uh concern but uh Mr G

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just um speaking of um today's decision

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and what we are discussing um it's uh

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certainly unexpected and um the bank

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decision said as our correspondent

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mentioned earlier that uh the decision

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of the bank is not subject to uh

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revision um what does that mean I mean

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does it mean there's no room for

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maneuvering there's no room for

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discussion there's no room for legal

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procedures what are your

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thoughts absolutely none the banks have

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in their uh Financial articles and in

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the contracts that they have with

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clients that they can discontinue

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banking uh Services Arrangements at any

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time without giving a reason you can

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complain to the banking ombudsman but

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that's not what the paper it would be

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written on no this is a crude uh brute

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decision by a British government owned

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bank to cause a problem not a great one

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I think uh for Russia and for RT and

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they will not negotiate it they will not

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revise it uh you'll just have to find

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other bankers and if uh you can't find

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other Bankers you'll just have to bank

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through Russian Banks here uh in London

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that's what I would do if I were you but

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it does pose the question uh what does

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Russia do uh Visa V the BBC the British

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State

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broadcaster uh are there grounds for

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retaliatory measures against the BBC in

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Moscow in in Russia I would would have

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thought yes it's of course a matter for

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your president and for your government

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but uh uh my knowledge of Russia which

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is quite deep and quite long is that uh

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Russia cannot be pushed around uh easily

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anymore you talked about good Pages uh

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of course the second world war for a

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brief period was uh a very glorious page

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but since then the only decent period of

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British Russian relations have been when

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Russia was ruled by someone who allowed

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uh others to steal Russia's wealth now

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that Russia is governed by people who

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don't allow people to steal Russia's

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wealth who don't allow people to

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humiliate Russia well I'm afraid

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relations commensurately soured well

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we've heard uh some harsh R rhetoric

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coming uh towards uh uh Russia uh from

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uh the west and uh especially uh

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mainstream media through the mainstream

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media I should say but you know just um

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going to the situation uh looking at the

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situation at hand here uh what I know so

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far is um there's an organization called

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The International Federation of

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journalists and they're saying that um

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UK bank should publicly explain his

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decision to block accounts of RT

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broadcaster so um obviously there's

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going to be some uh pressure from um

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International organizations um on the

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bank for uh this uh decision but uh John

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George sorry um just looking at um what

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you said earlier and the hostility that

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uh there is towards a Russian mainstream

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media in the west uh for uh that matter

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uh I just want to ask you um how it all

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happen I mean obviously kind of

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snowballed you know escalated uh and got

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to the point where we are now I mean two

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years ago our T banners were taken down

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across London um what is the problem

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that um UK um has with rt apart from

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obviously what you uh mentioned

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earlier well the the key problem I

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repeat myself is that RT has become

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extremely popular at the same time as

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the British State broadcastter the BBC

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has become increasingly unpopular if

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nobody was watching RT we wouldn't be

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having this conversation now and your

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bank account would still be open you see

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in the hypocrisy called Britain not

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democracy but hypocrisy you're allowed

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freedom of speech as long as no one is

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listening to you but as as soon as a

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large number of people are listening to

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you and finding your take on things

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persuasive more persuasive than the

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others then that's when the alarm Bells

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start ringing that's when the spanners

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start being thrown in the works and of

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course other broadcasters have suffered

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this same fate and I've been expecting

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as why I said at the beginning it's

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shocking but not surprising because I've

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been expecting something I have seen

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from inside the parliament where I sat

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for almost 30 years and outside I've

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seen the mounting levels of concern

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about the growing popularity of RT which

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matches Western broadcasters uh for

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professionalism for production standards

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for the quality of the journalism

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everything it just has a different take

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uh on the events a parallel universe

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actually in this universe that I'm s

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sitting in now in London it's a great

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thing that Britain and America and Iraq

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are bombing mosul to kill Isis but it's

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a big crime that Russia and Syria are

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bombing Aleppo to get rid of Isis how's

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that for a parallel universe well

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certainly uh love it or uh hate it RT

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has uh

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provided uh alternative source of

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information to a lot of viewers around

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the world and

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uh the UK is no exception there as some

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analysts say that RT what RT has done

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it's broken the um Western Monopoly on

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information um you know earlier the

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Russian foreign Ministry spokeswoman um

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in uh response to the decision of nat

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West to block arti accounts uh said uh

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that uh uh the the e in voting to leave

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the EU Britain had also left behind its

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freedom of spee speech and freedom of

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speech obligations I should say so um my

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question to you now is how much has

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brexit already change the

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UK well we haven't brexit did yet and

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might not even yet uh brexit uh nobody

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knows about that this is the British

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behaving as they do in the way that a

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scorpion behaves like it does because

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it's a scorpion and because we are and

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albe it faded imperialist power we think

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with our big brother Uncle Sam we have

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the right to go around the world

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altering it in our own image as we

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please and when anyone stands up against

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us they become the the new enemy the new

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Hitler even can you imagine the Russian

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people gave 27 million lives to actually

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defeat the real Hitler but the president

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of Russia is routinely described in the

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British media as the new Hitler nothing

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could be more obscene a comparison than

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that so Britain doesn't feel Bound By

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Any obligations of free speech at least

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when that free speech is beginning to

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find an audience is beginning to be

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heard and be persuasive we are of course

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signatories of a whole number of

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conventions which guarantee freedom of

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speech and freedom of expression that'll

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be one of the reasons why the British

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government have used a bank decision to

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throw this spanner in Russia's Works

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rather than they themselves take a

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decision to close RT in London that

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would have been a very clear breach of

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international obligations they're hoping

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to achieve the same result but without

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the embarrassment of having to do that

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but don't rule out that possibility too

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uh if uh things get hotter over the next

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few weeks and months uh even that kind

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of crime against the British people's

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right to

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information uh cannot be ruled out well

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uh George we are waiting for a formal

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awaiting formal explanation uh from uh

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the UK um as to what happened today and

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why this happened of course but um what

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a complex world we live in to put a mild

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I'd like to thank you very much for your

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uh views and analysis that was a British

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politician George Galloway talking to us

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here on RT International