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MOSCOW. – Russia yesterday warned the West that Moscow would be very tough if the US and European Union seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the US and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking around US$300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.

The EU has adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said on Monday, in a first concrete step towards the bloc’s aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.

“This is theft: It’s the appropriation of something that doesn’t belong to you,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio.

Zakharova said the response from Moscow would be “extremely tough” as Russia felt it was essentially dealing with thieves.

“Considering that our country has qualified this as theft, the attitude will be towards thieves,” Zakharova said. “Not as political manipulators, not as overplayed technologists, but as thieves.”

Meanwhile, the US Senateyesterday approved US$60 billion in funding for Ukraine, in a bill House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated his Republican-led chamber will reject.

The USackage includes funding for Israel’s military and key strategic ally Taiwan, but the lion’s share – US$60 billion – would help Ukraine restock depleted ammunition supplies, weapons and other needs as it enters a third year of war. – Reuters