Moscow warns West of ‘harsh response’ if frozen Russian assets are confiscated

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Moscow on Sunday warned the West of a “harsh response” if the frozen Russian assets are confiscated.

“Russian assets must remain inviolable, otherwise there will be a harsh response to Western theft. And many in the West have already understood this,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Telegram.

Zakharova’s comments come in response to a Wall Street Journal article on Germany’s objection to the use of frozen Russian assets and its argument to use the funds as “leverage” during peace talks in ending the Russia-Ukraine war and encouraging Moscow to cede some of the Ukrainian territory under its control.

“I don’t know who is saying what, but the assets on the territory are not changing. We don't trade our homeland,” she went on to say.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview that such a step by the West would be “a solid nail in the coffin” for the Western economic system and eliminate its “reliability.”

“Of course, foreign investors, foreign countries that keep their holdings in the assets of these countries, will now start thinking 10 times before investing their money. Reliability will disappear. Reliability disappears overnight, in one stupid, ill-thought-out decision. It takes decades, or even more, to recover,” Peskov said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV, a fragment of which was shared on Sunday.

He went on to say that such decisions will also have “very broad judicial prospects” which Moscow will take advantage of and “endlessly” defend its interests, adding that Russia also has “Western money” in the country.

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war over two years ago, more than $300 billion in assets belonging to Russia’s Central Bank and major Russian banks were frozen by Western countries.