Russians officials warned the West today of a “harsh” response to the seizure of frozen Russian assets and vowed “endless” legal battles and retaliation.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would never cede territory it seized from Ukraine in exchange for the return of seized Russian assets.
“Our homeland is not for sale,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
“Any Russian assets must remain intact, otherwise there will be a harsh response to Western theft. Many in the West have already figured this out. Unfortunately not all”, he commented.
In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US and its allies have banned transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry and frozen some $300 billion in Russian assets in the West, most of which are in European financial institutions and not in American ones.
In a separate comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was still a lot of Western money in Russia that could be targeted by Russian countermeasures.
“The prospects for legal appeals (against the seizure of Russian assets) are wide open. Russia will take advantage of them and defend its interests relentlessly,” Peskov said.
Yesterday, after all, Russian Security Council number two and former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia would respond to any US seizure of Russian seized currency reserves in the West – by confiscating the assets – including real estate and cash – of American citizens and investors in Russia.
The US House of Representatives has passed legislation allowing the Biden administration to seize Russian assets held in US banks and transfer them to Ukraine, which the Kremlin has called illegal and said would trigger retaliation.
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