The Kremlin said today that the EU's plan to use interest from frozen Russian assets to finance military aid to Ukraine constitutes "theft" and said he would take legal action against anyone associated with the decision, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said yesterday that the first tranche of military aid to Ukraine worth 1.4 billion euros, with funds from interest on frozen Russian assets, will be transferred in early August.
"Such thefts cannot be left without retaliatory measures," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "This money is not only practically stolen, but will also be spent on buying weapons," he added.
"We will definitely check the possibility of prosecution of those people who are connected with the decision-making and implementation of these decisions, because this is a direct violation of international laws, it is a violation of the right to property," Peskov also said .
After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, the US and its allies imposed a ban on transactions with the Russian Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance and froze sovereign Russian assets worth about US$300 billion, states Reuters.
EU countries confiscate the interest from these frozen assets - bonds and other types of securities in which the Russian Central Bank has invested – and invest them in a European fund that will be used to help Ukraine.
Putin claims the West has launched an economic war against Russia, but points to both the resilience of Russia's economy, which grew 3.6% last year, and the failure of sanctions against Russian trade.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that any seizure of its assets would run counter to the free-market principles the West claims to espouse and would undermine confidence in the US dollar and euro, as well as Western central banks.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said today that Moscow will have a harsh response if Europe uses the proceeds from Russian assets.