(Dan Tri) – Russian officials warned Europe that Moscow has drafted a law to respond if nearly $300 billion of their assets are confiscated by the West and used to rebuild Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with President of the Russian Senate Valentina Matviyenko at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2023 (Photo: Reuters).
`We have prepared a response. We have drafted a draft law ready for immediate consideration of retaliatory measures. Europe will lose more than us,` Russian Senate President Valentina
Ms. Matviyenko, a member of Russia’s Security Council, did not give specific information about Moscow’s response to the confiscation of Russian assets.
After Russia launched a special military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, the US and its allies banned transactions with the Russian central bank and finance ministry, and blocked about 300 billion USD of Russian assets.
Top US officials want to seize Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine, while some European bankers and officials worry that asset seizures would set a dangerous precedent.
On April 20, the US House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the confiscation of Russian assets, although most of these assets are currently in Europe.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that any action to confiscate assets would go against all the principles of the free market set by the West and would reduce confidence in the USD and the euro, and at the same time
Russia announced it would sue any confiscation of its assets in court.
Some Moscow officials say that if Russian assets are confiscated, the assets of foreign investors trapped in special accounts known as `C` types in Russia could face the same fate.
Chairman of the Russian House of Representatives Vyacheslav Volodin said on April 22 that Russia has grounds to confiscate Western assets after the move of the US House of Representatives.
Mr. Volodin said that of the $280 billion in Russian assets frozen abroad, only $5 to $6 billion is in the United States while about 210 billion euros ($224 billion) is in the European Union.
US officials see the asset confiscation plan as leverage to force Russia to sit at the negotiating table to end the conflict with Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov once warned that Moscow could cut diplomatic relations with Washington if the US confiscated Russian assets frozen due to the Ukraine conflict.