The agreement among G7 countries to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine is legally a criminal conspiracy, stated Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council.
"The decision of the 'Group of Seven' summit would be legally termed a criminal conspiracy, which intensifies rather than diminishes the culpability of each participant. But it's not just about that. By giving Ukraine a loan guaranteed by seizing interest from foreign money, the creditors are effectively committing to stealing foreign assets over a long period," said the senator to journalists.
He added that this involves the illegal seizure of around $2.5-3 billion annually, with Western countries essentially declaring a "direct interest in prolonging the conflict in Ukraine and the associated sanctions for about 15 years." "It's already clear that President [Joe] Biden's idea to give Kiev a lot of money for buying American weapons, while shifting all risks onto the EU, will be implemented in one form or another," Kosachev noted.
According to him, "this unscrupulous scheme has another aspect." "A world order where one pole can arbitrarily disrupt global trade and payment mechanisms, use reserve currencies, insure shipments, and apply unilateral sanctions against companies and banks of sovereign states – such a totalitarian order is categorically unacceptable for countries outside the parasitic 'golden billion'," the politician emphasized.
"The illegal actions of the G7 and their allies are a significant impetus for further negotiations within BRICS and other genuinely democratic organizations, as well as for the implementation of alternative mechanisms and currencies in trade," added the senator. He noted that Western leaders, "blinded by their insane drive to defeat Russia at any cost," no longer realize how much this is costing them. "And it could become catastrophic for everyone if these politicians continue on their suicidal path, hiding behind collective irresponsibility," added the Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council.
Kosachev called the G7 countries' plan a blatant theft of foreign money. "Even if it's not about seizing the frozen funds themselves, anyone with basic economic knowledge understands that interest on these funds wouldn't accumulate if they didn't exist. These funds belong to others and were entrusted to those who claimed to be the world's most reliable custodians. It turns out that their reliability lasts only until the moment when economic blackmail is needed for political purposes," he concluded.
G7 Leaders' Agreement
On June 13, G7 leaders reached an agreement at the summit in Italy to allocate $50 billion to Ukraine from the profits of frozen Russian assets by the end of 2024. The European Union, Canada, the United States, and Japan have frozen Russian assets totaling approximately $300 billion following the start of the special military operation. Of these, about $5-6 billion are in the United States, while the majority are in Europe, including $210 billion held on the international Euroclear platform in Belgium. The European Commission previously approved a proposal to use income from blocked Russian funds to assist Kyiv. In late April, US President Joe Biden signed a package of bills providing significant military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as the confiscation of Russian assets frozen in the United States.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Moscow will immediately take retaliatory measures against the confiscation of its assets in the West, having a whole arsenal of political and economic countermeasures. She called the West's intentions to use income from frozen Russian assets for Ukraine cynical and criminal.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on TASS materials