Russia Warns Europe Must Restore Moscow's Assets Or Considered Thieves

JAKARTA - European countries must return blocked Russian assets if they do not want to be "known as European thieves" and receive the harshest punishment for their crimes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Only Russia has the right to decide what will happen to the assets of the Russian Federation," Zakharova explained, launching TASS on November 26.

"And those holding the Russian Federation's money illegally should return it if they don't want to be known as European thieves and receive the harshest punishment for their crimes," he stressed.

The Russian diplomat's comments on Telegram responded to French President Emmanuel Macron's statement that the right to manage frozen Russian assets in the European Union belonged to Europe.

This was conveyed by President Macron in line with the rejection of the provisions in the Russia-Ukraine war peace plan carried by the United States.

The 28-point peace plan proposed by the United States last week includes proposals to use these assets for US-led reconstruction efforts in Ukraine after the ceasefire was agreed.

The proposal risks thwarting Europe's efforts to mobilize 140 billion euros from Russian assets to fund war efforts in Ukraine.

"Europe is the only because it is listed in the plan (US) which can decide what we will do with frozen Russian assets held by Europe," President Macron said at the French radio station RTL, reported Politico.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, nearly 300 billion euros in Moscow assets, including bank accounts, securities, real estate to cruise ships, were overseas and frozen due to Western sanctions, quoted from DW.

Although many countries hold these assets, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Japan, most of these assets are in EU member states, and the largest is in Belgium.

Euroclear, Brussels-based financial storage agency, holds about 180 billion euros of Russian assets frozen.

Since the war began, Europe has discussed whether and how to use Russian assets to make Russia pay for the war it has started.

Such a latest discussion was held in October, when Belgium vetoed a "reparation loan" that the European Union wanted to offer Ukraine to rebuild the country.

Belgium is concerned about legal issues and that Russia will eventually ask for a refund from the country. That is why Belgium refused to join and requested that the responsibility be shared by other countries.

The European Union hopes to ease Belgium's concerns and win them over at the upcoming summit of the bloc in mid-December.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed previously that Moscow will not allow efforts to confiscate Russian assets without a response.