Putin frowns as EU freezes 23 bln euro of Russian assets

Didier Reynders, the European Commissioner for Justice, announced that the EU had frozen assets worth 23 billion euros held by the Russian Federation’s Central Bank.

At the same time, Reynders pointed out that the 23 billion frozen in the European Union was insignificant in comparison to the US’s 100 billion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin retorted that stealing someone else’s assets can never be beneficial.

“Stealing someone else’s assets has never worked out well for anyone, especially those who do it,” Putin added, referring to the West’s recent decision to freeze Russian assets.

Since the beginning of March, the United States, the EU, Great Britain and Japan have imposed sanctions against the Russian Central Bank. The governments of these countries decided to freeze the reserves of the Russian central Bank nominated in their national currencies.

The European Union earlier banned operations related to the management of reserves and assets of the Russian Central Bank. The document prohibited transactions related to the management of reserves, as well as assets of the Central Bank of Russia, including transactions with any legal entity, organization or body acting on behalf of the Central Bank of Russia.

On May 21, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky suggested foreign partner states should conclude a multilateral agreement that would involve the confiscation of Russia’s assets abroad and their transfer to Ukraine and other countries.

Zelensky offered to transfer Russia’s foreign assets to Ukraine and other states in order to compensate for losses from the actions of Russian troops.