Russia is considering downgrading its diplomatic relations with the US if Western governments continue with the proposals for the confiscation of its frozen assets, the RIA Novosti agency reported today, citing the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov, BTA reports.
The group of G-7 countries wants to use frozen Russian financial assets worth nearly 300 billion dollars since 2022 to help Ukraine, which has been fighting the Russian invasion for the third year, Reuters reported.
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How this will be done, however, remains extremely complex given that it will set a controversial precedent.
Ryabkov said Moscow would take economic and political retaliatory measures if Russian assets were seized.
"Reducing the level of diplomatic relations is one possibility, of course. "Many high-ranking representatives of our government have already spoken about our financial, economic and material response to this step (confiscation), which we warn our opponents, as before, not to take," RIA quoted him as saying.
"We are now exploring the optimal form of response where countermeasures include actions against the assets of our Western adversaries as well as diplomatic measures.
He did not specify what the downgrading of diplomatic relations might entail. The Kremlin has described the current state of relations with the US as "below zero", although there has been no official downgrade in relations since the start of the war in Ukraine.