Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday branded as “theft” the freezing of Russian assets abroad and warned it would “not go unpunished”.
Putin, speaking at a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, said the way the West had treated Moscow showed that any country could fall victim to a similar Western asset freeze.
“Despite all the chicanery, theft will certainly remain theft. And it will not go unpunished”, Putin said.
“Now it is becoming obvious to all countries, companies [and] sovereign funds that their assets and reserves are far from safe in both the legal and economic sense of the word.
“Anyone could be next in line for expropriation by the US and the West.”
G7 leaders agreed on Thursday on a new US$50 billion loan for Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian assets, a move US President Joe Biden said showed Moscow “we’re not backing down”.
The G7 and the EU froze around US$325 billion of Russian central bank reserves, days after Moscow ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
On Friday, Putin said Western countries were trying to come up with “some kind of legal basis” to justify these acts.
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Ukraine war two years on: disease, displacement and demands for aid
Ukraine war two years on: disease, displacement and demands for aid
The Russian President also said Moscow would cease fire and begin peace talks “immediately” if Ukraine pulled back troops from four regions and gave up its Nato membership bid.
“As soon as Kyiv says it is ready to do this and begins really withdrawing troops and officially renounces plans to join Nato, we will immediately, literally that very minute, cease fire and begin talks,” Putin said.
The Russian leader also warned the stand-off between Moscow and the West was coming “unacceptably close to the point of no return” and boasted that Moscow “possesses the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
Putin has repeatedly invoked nuclear rhetoric throughout the conflict with Ukraine, which he casts as just one front in a wider “hybrid war” between Russia and the Nato military alliance.
He also blasted a Ukraine peace forum taking place in Switzerland this weekend as a “trick to distract everybody.”
Moscow was not invited to the conference, which will be attended by the heads of state and senior officials from around 90 countries and international organisations.