Remind The West About Confiscation, Russia: We Will Be Very Firm If You Steal Our Assets

Maria Zakharova. (Twitter/@RussianEmbassy)

JAKARTA - Russian authorities again warned the West on Tuesday that Moscow would react firmly if the United States and the European Union seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.

The European Union on Monday adopted a law to set aside unexpected profits obtained from Russia's frozen central bank assets, a concrete first step towards the bloc's goal of using the money to finance Ukraine's reconstruction.

"This is theft: It's a seizure of something that doesn't belong to you," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio.

Zakharova further said the response from Moscow would be "very harsh" because Russia felt they were basically dealing with thieves.

"Given that our country has qualified this as theft, our attitude is towards thieves," said Zakharova.

"Not as a political manipulator, not as an excessive technology expert, but as a thief," he said.

Earlier, the United States and its allies banned transactions with Russia's central bank and Ministry of Finance, blocking Moscow's assets of around US$300 billion in the West, after President Vladimir Putin deployed his troops in a special military operation to Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia's central bank has not provided detailed details on what is frozen, but a rough picture can be obtained from documents detailing Russia's holdings in early 2022. These assets are spread in the form of euros, US dollars, British pounds, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Singapore dollars and Swiss francs.

Russia has said that if its property is confiscated, it will confiscate US assets, Europe, and others in response. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any attempt to seize Russian assets would pose legal challenges over the years from Russia.

"Of course, the Russian Federation will oppose the decision, we will protect our illegally confiscated interests and assets," Peskov stressed.

Late last year, Peskov warned Western countries they had a list of assets of the United States, Europe and others that would be confiscated, if G7 state leaders decided to continue and confiscate USD 300 billion in Russian central bank reserves.