She drew attention to The Wall Street Journal’s report that Germany allegedly wants to leave Russia’s frozen assets intact to used them as a tool during the conflict settlement talks to force Russia cede part of the Ukrainian territory it has taken control of.
“Russian assets must stay intact. Otherwise, a tough response will follow the West’s robbery. Many in the West understand this. I wish everyone does,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
“I don’t know who is saying what but we don’t swap assets for territories. We never bargain our motherland,” she emphasized.
The European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan have frozen some $300 billion worth of Russian assets since the beginning of its special military operation in Ukraine. The United States accounts for around $5-6 billion of this sum.
On April 24, the US Senate approved a package of bills to provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to confiscate Russia’s frozen assets for their transfer them to Kiev, and to impose additional sanctions on China.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also said confiscating Russian assets would be a nail in the coffin of the entire Western economic system.
“If this happens, if such a dangerous precedent is created, it will be such a solid nail in the future coffin of the entire Western economic system of coordinates,” Peskov said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin, a journalist from the program ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin’ on Rossiya 1 TV channel.
Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, also stated that foreign investors and countries around the globe will reconsider investing their money in the West if it goes ahead with the asset seizure sanctioned by the US Congress this week.
“Of course, foreign investors, foreign states that keep their reserves in the assets of these countries, from now on will think ten times before investing their money,” Peskov continued, adding, “Reliability disappears overnight, because of one thoughtless decision. It is restored [only after] decades, or even more.”
He said it was to soon to talk about Russia’s response in the event of the West seizing Russian assets, but noted that there was also Western property in Russia.
“It is premature to talk about this,” Peskov stated, adding, “Of course, there is Western money here. We have Western money of various structures. Now is not the time to specify.”
However, he stressed that in the event of the seizure of frozen Russian assets in the West, Russia would take legal action and other steps.
“Of course, such decisions will have very broad judicial perspectives. And, of course, Russia will use these judicial perspectives and will endlessly defend its interests in this field,” the spokesperson continued.
