Russian officials have this morning threatened the West with a “severe” response if frozen Russian assets are confiscated.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added Russia would never give up territories seized from Ukraine in exchange for the return of frozen assets.
“Our motherland is not for sale,” Ms Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“All Russian assets must remain untouched because otherwise there will be a severe response to Western thievery.
“Many in the West have already understood this. Alas, not everyone.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added that there was lots of Western money that could be targeted in countermeasures put in place by Moscow.
What assets have been frozen, and why seize them now?
Today’s comments from the Kremlin are the latest in a back-and-forth between Russia and the West after the US House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the Biden administration to confiscate Russian assets held in American banks and transfer them to Ukraine.
The assets – worth around $300bn – were frozen at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, as were transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry.
So far EU countries and the US have held off confiscating the assets for fears it could escalate tensions – or cause other countries like China and Saudi Arabia to fear for their own European assets.
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