An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Europe today that Russia has already drawn up legislation to retaliate if the West seizes nearly $300 billion in Russian assets and uses them to help Ukraine.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies banned transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, freezing about $300 billion in Russian state assets held in the West.
Top US officials want to seize the assets and use them to prop up Ukraine, although some bankers and European officials worry that would set a dangerous precedent.
“We also have a ready answer,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted as saying.
The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed legislation that includes a bill that would allow the seizure of Russian state assets, although the lion’s share of those assets are located in Europe.
“Europeans will lose more than us”
“We also have a ready answer,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA. “We have a draft law, which we are ready to consider immediately, regarding retaliatory measures.”
“And the Europeans will lose more than us,” stressed Matviyenko, who is a member of Russia’s powerful Security Council.
Matviyenko did not say anything specific about what the response will be to the seizure of Russian assets, which is still being debated in the West.
One option, discussed by the West, is to confiscate the proceeds of the assets without confiscating the assets themselves.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any seizure of its assets would go against all Western free market principles and undermine confidence in the US dollar and the euro, while deterring global investment and undermining confidence in Western central banks. banks.
