New York [US], June 28: President Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready to give up about $300 billion in assets frozen in the West if it helps accelerate the transition away from Western-dominated financial systems.
"A large amount of Russian gold and monetary assets are frozen in Western banks. They keep saying they intend to steal our money," President Putin said at the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) summit in Minsk, Belarus, on June 26, according to The Moscow Times .
Western countries have frozen about $300 billion in Russian central bank assets , mostly in Europe, after Moscow launched a military campaign in Ukraine in 2022. The European Union (EU) plans to use the interest from these assets to finance Ukraine's defense industry, a move the Kremlin has condemned as "theft".
Mr Putin said the West's seizure of these funds would trigger an "irreversible trend towards the regionalisation of payment systems", which he claimed would ultimately benefit the global economy.
"I think this is probably worth paying," Putin said, adding that Moscow would continue to work to strengthen its own financial payment systems, working with "friendly countries.
"The G7 said Russian assets would remain frozen until Russia paid for damages to Ukraine. In the EU, which holds more than $200 billion in assets, officials remain divided over whether outright seizures could undermine the euro's global standing and risk retaliation.
Mr Putin, a lawyer by training, joked at the EEU conference that his legal background allowed him to define confiscation of property not just as "theft" but as "looting".
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
