MFA: Russia is considering all legal mechanisms for the return of blocked assets

Russia is considering all existing legal mechanisms for returning access to its frozen assets and is ready, if necessary, to apply certain “compensatory measures”, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at the briefing.

“The Russian authorities are considering all possible legal mechanisms to return access to Russian foreign assets and are ready to take decisive steps to protect national property or apply separate compensatory measures,” she said.

Zakharova stressed that the plans of some countries, including Estonia, to seize Russian assets are perceived by Moscow as a “gross encroachment on sovereign property” and will cause a corresponding adequate response.

The refusal of unfriendly countries to interact with Russia in the legal field will demonstrate to the entire financial world the dependence of the assets of sovereign countries on market geopolitical realities in several Western countries, Zakharova stressed.

“And, most importantly, demonstrate that they are thieves,” she concluded.

Calls to confiscate Russian assets in the EU are heard regularly. In particular, on November 30, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen suggested create a structure for managing Russian assets. According to her, the blocked funds of the Russian Central Bank and the assets of Russian oligarchs confiscated due to sanctions should be combined into a fund, the funds of which should be invested, and the profit from these investments should be used for compensation payments to Ukraine. The head of the EC specified that Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen.

The Kremlin called the freezing of Russian assets theft. At the end of October, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that the blocking of assets abroad is contrary to international law. He noted that Russia is limited in its actions to combat such a decision, but the Russian authorities will not “sit idly by.”