Russia warns West against planning to seize its frozen funds through 'pseudo-legal' system

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Russia has devised an alternate plan to deal with the situation if the West tries to confiscate its frozen money through a "pseudo-legal" system that would violate the basic parameters of the international economy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, without disclosing countermeasures.

"No US legal theory" concerning the confiscation of Russian assets can be legitimate, and it can only be "pseudo-legal," Peskov said at a press conference in Moscow while commenting on media reports claiming that the US suggested the world's seven major economies, or G-7, confiscate Russia's frozen funds.

The Russian government has planned possible retaliatory measures in advance, he said.

"Understanding the complete unpredictability of our counterparties and their tendency to violate international law and other laws, including their national ones, understanding their tendency to self-destruction, I mean the destruction of the modern economic system, undermining confidence in the basic postulates of the global economic system, ... we analyzed possible retaliatory steps in advance. And we will do everything so that it best suits our interests," he stressed.

But, most importantly, he said, such a step by the West would be a blow to the fundamental parameters of the international economy, undermining it.

“It will undermine the trust of other countries in the US, as such a pseudo-economic guarantor, and the European Union," he said.

The spokesman noted that when the EU and US imposed "unprecedented sanctions" on Russia, they did not consider the "boomerang effect" at all.

"Now the boomerang effect is already obvious, and they are not just thinking, but many are already wondering if they did the right thing," he said.

The Western countries imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia due to its "special military operation" in Ukraine, which began in Feb. 2022.