The Kremlin on Thursday condemned the US decision to transfer confiscated Russian funds to Ukraine. The Russian government threatened to retaliate against the Americans for what it saw as an attack on private property.
“To begin with, this is a harm to those who, to be blunt, seized or stole this money. This is a direct harm. As far as the US is concerned, such decisions will, of course, hit them like a boomerang,” he said. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, at a telephone press conference.
Peskov called the confiscation itself “illegal” and “illegitimate” and expressed his conviction that under normal circumstances such a case could be won in court, although he has now ruled out the option of theoretically defending Russian property rights in the US.” sacred” in that country.
“This undermines confidence, investors’ confidence, the confidence of owners of assets linked in some way to the US. And all of this, without a doubt, cannot remain without consequences,” he said.
The presidential spokesperson defended the principle of “reciprocity” and risked asymmetrical and “unusual” responses.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland yesterday announced the first transfer of confiscated assets from Russian oligarchs for the reconstruction of Ukraine, which since February 2022 has suffered from Russian offensives.
Specifically, Washington accuses Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev of violating sanctions imposed on Moscow after its military intervention in Ukraine, alleging that he financed the separatist movement in Crimea.
Garland, who assured that said transfer “will not be the last”, assured that the prosecution seized several million dollars from Malofeyev deposited in an American bank.
According to independent Russian sources, Malofeyev also financed in 2014 the pro-Russian armed uprising in Donbass, preceded by the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
In March, Russia’s Federal Security Service said it prevented an attack, allegedly staged by Ukraine, on Malofeyev, chairman of the Tsargrad media group.
At the time, Russia warned the European Union of retaliatory measures if it confiscated Russian assets frozen by EU sanctions and used them for the reconstruction of the neighboring country.
In February, the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Economic Affairs and Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, assured: “We are working on legal solutions for the use of confiscated Russian assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
European law does not allow the confiscation of frozen assets, unless they are linked to the commission of a crime. Brussels is studying how to facilitate this confiscation in accordance with EU and international law.
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