Russia is considering downgrading its diplomatic relations with the United States, if Western governments go ahead with proposals to confiscate its frozen assets. This was warned by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Ryabkov, quoted by “Reuters” and RIA Novosti.
The G-7 countries want to use pnarrow financial assets worth nearly $300 billion, frozen by sanctions since 2022 to help Ukraine, which has been fighting Russian invasion for three years.
How this will be done, however, remains very complicated, given that it will set a controversial precedent.
Ryabkov emphasized that Moscow will retaliate economic and political, if its assets are confiscated.
Russia warns Europe against seizing its assets: You will lose more than us
Moscow has already drafted legislation to retaliate
“Downgrading diplomatic relations is one option, of course. Many high-ranking representatives in our government have already spoken about our financial, economic and material response to this step (confiscation), which we are warning our adversaries not to take.” , he pointed out.
We now study the optimal reaction form where kcountermeasures include actions against the assets of our Western adversaries as well as diplomatic retaliatory measuresRyabkov added.
He did not specify what the lowering of the level of diplomatic relations could lead to.
The Kremlin defines the current state of relations with the United States as such “below zero” although there has been no formal deterioration in relations since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Western banks were alarmed by the EU’s idea of Russian assets
They fear costly litigation that could drag on for decades
Tags: Russia threatened downgrade diplomatic ties
