MOSCOW: Russia has warned the West that Moscow would be very tough if the Washington and European Union (EU) seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets, local media reported.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent forces into Ukraine in 2022, the US and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking about $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
The EU passed a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said, in a first solid step towards the alliance’s aim of using the money to finance the rebuilding of Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that this is theft and It is the appropriation of something that “doesn’t belong to you.”
Zakharova added the response from Russia would be “extremely tough” as Moscow felt it was really dealing with thieves. Zakharova said that considering that their country has qualified this as theft, the attitude will be towards thieves.
Moscow has said that if its property is seized then it will seize European, US, and other assets in responses.
