The British businessman responsible for running the UK operations of RT, the Russian state broadcaster, has earned more than £2 million over the past three years.
Chris Wood is the sole director and shareholder of Russia Today TV UK Limited, which effectively produced RT’s original British programming before the channel was taken off air this month following President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
RT was banned in the EU in early March, and had its UK broadcasting licence revoked by Ofcom on Friday. RT could still be hit with a fine for breaches of British broadcasting rules.
Wood, 57, moved to liquidate RT UK last week and staff were given notice of redundancy. He was named as the company’s only director when it was established in 2005, meaning he has been responsible for it for 17 years.
Wood received £1.6 million in interim dividends and £425,621 in director’s remuneration between August 2017 and July 2020, according to documents filed at Companies House. His dividend in 2020 alone was £800,000.
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RT UK did not disclose dividends or Wood’s salary before 2007 because it was classed as a small company and therefore did not have to publish full accounts.
The firm made a pre-tax profit of £1 million in the 12 months to the end of July 2020, which was down 70 per cent on £3.5 million over the same period the year before. Its turnover was £10.1 million in 2020, compared with £15 million in 2019.
RT insiders described Wood as a somewhat mysterious figure, who was rarely seen at the channel’s offices in Millbank, central London, during the pandemic and was not involved in day-to-day editorial matters.
“He’s been a general administrator, he doesn’t have much editorial oversight,” said one source. Another person bemoaned the “utter lack of management” at the company. Nikolay Bogachikhin was head of RT UK, though insiders at the channel said he spent much of his time in Moscow.
Before setting up RT UK, Wood lived in Russia with his wife Elvira, a ballerina from Estonia, according to The Independent. They have two children, both of whom were born in Moscow.
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Wood emailed colleagues last week to let them know RT UK was being wound up. It is not clear how many people have been made redundant.
The most recent accounts showed that it had 81 employees, although sources said it was now far fewer, particularly following a wave of resignations over the invasion of Ukraine. Wood’s brother, Nicholas, an architect based in Hertfordshire, told The Independent that 45 journalists had been laid off.
“My brother’s a businessman, he was working in Moscow and then got an opportunity to come over here and help them set up something over here, which he did as a business and he ran it as a business . . . I don’t think he’s got any political interests in that at all, it’s just running it as a business,” he said.
As western regulators closed in on RT, it was Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief, who communicated to UK staff, not Wood. In an email sent on March 3, as RT’s channel vanished from UK television screens, Simonyan said “we will never abandon any of our colleagues”. A fortnight later, Wood filed for liquidation.
In the same email, seen by The Times, Simonyan said she was proud of RT journalists for “telling the truth that others are afraid to say out loud” about Ukraine. She said RT was doing its job “better than anyone else” and it “truly hurts” that colleagues were quitting. Those who remained were “strong” and “brave”, she added.
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Sources said RT’s UK operations were not completely dead. It is understood that Moscow is keen for Going Underground to continue broadcasting. The current affairs programme is broadcast three times a week and is hosted by Afshin Rattansi, a former producer on Radio 4’s Today programme.
Wood has been contacted for comment.
