Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday branded the Western countries’ action as “theft” for freezing Russian assets abroad while providing loans to Ukraine from its interest. Putin has warned it would “not go unpunished”.
The G7 and the EU froze around 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of Russian central bank reserves, days after Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The G7 leaders agreed Thursday on a new $50 billion loan for Ukraine using profits from interest on frozen Russian assets, a move US President Joe Biden said showed Moscow “we’re not backing down”.
On Friday, Putin said Western countries were trying to come up with “some kind of legal basis” to justify these “but despite all the trickery, theft is still theft and will not go unpunished”.
Initially, the United States advocated for the direct seizure of Russian assets but has since aligned with the European plan to utilise the interest generated by the frozen assets.
