Russia on Saturday accused the European Union of sabotaging peace efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict after the bloc decided to indefinitely freeze Russian sovereign assets, and warned that retaliatory measures from Moscow would follow shortly.
On Friday, the EU Council decided to prohibit, on a temporary basis, any transfers of Central Bank of Russia assets immobilised in the EU back to Russia.
In a statement, the Council said the decision was taken as a “matter of urgency to limit damage to the Union’s economy”.
Reacting sharply, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the timing of the move showed that Brussels was seeking to undermine efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict by delivering what she described as a direct blow to the peace initiatives of US President Donald Trump.
“Brussels is carefully concealing the fact that it will be citizens of EU countries who will ultimately pay for these political ambitions. Our retaliatory actions will follow shortly,” Zakharova said in a press statement.
Responding to questions on Moscow’s response, she said a detailed statement had already been published by the Bank of Russia on Friday and that concrete steps were under way.
“Specific steps are already being implemented. On the same day, Russia’s regulator announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Euroclear depository, seeking compensation for losses incurred by the Bank of Russia,” she said.
The Bank of Russia has announced its decision to recover damages caused to the Russian regulator by filing a corresponding lawsuit against the Belgian depository Euroclear in the Moscow Arbitration Court.
Zakharova warned that the consequences of the EU’s actions would extend beyond Russia. “At the same time, the European Union itself will no longer be able to make up for the damage that such actions will inflict both on its own financial and economic system and on its reputation worldwide as what was once a reliable trade and investment partner,” she said.
She added that such misdemeanours in international relations do not go without consequences, stressing that any disposal of Russia’s sovereign assets without Moscow’s consent, “whether it be their indefinite freezing, seizure, or attempts to present their de facto confiscation as some kind of ‘reparations loan’ — constitutes an absolutely unlawful act that grossly violates the norms of international law.”
Zakharova also said the EU’s policy towards Russia had “long been stripped of any rational logic and resembles a theatre of the absurd”, arguing that Brussels’ course of inflicting damage on Russia at any cost had already resulted in a dire economic situation within the EU itself.
Brussels-based Euroclear is believed to be holding around 200 billion euros worth of Russian sovereign assets.
The European Commission has proposed using these assets to underwrite a reparation loan to Ukraine to fund its civilian and military budget.
Earlier this week, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the Upper House, the Council of Federation, that the Kremlin had prepared a tough response to the expropriation of Russian assets, including the possible confiscation of Western government and private assets.
Local media reports suggest that Russia holds between $500 billion and $800 billion worth of such assets.