MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. The "gangsterish practices" of the Western countries in relation to Russia’s assets cannot be wrapped up in the norms of international law, and all attempts to legitimize [such actions] are doomed to failure, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. He was commenting on the publication by the Welt newspaper of reports that Central Bank of Russia assets frozen in the EU will have to be returned to Russia once the conflict in Ukraine ends.

"Now, it’s becoming obvious that [attempts] to couch, or wrap such gangsterish practices by the collective West in blocking our assets up in the norms of international law simply won’t pan out; trying to legitimize such steps will not work out. Whichever way you slice it, all of their actions still look illegal," he said.

Peskov said that the Kremlin will be watching the West’s further steps.

"We demand that all of this [the assets] be unblocked, and we consider it illegal. We are convinced that any attempt to legitimize this is doomed to failure," Peskov concluded.

Earlier, the German newspaper Die Welt reported, citing an unpublished European Commission (EC) document, that EC experts had come to the conclusion that, from a legal point of view, the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia cannot simply be transferred to Ukraine, despite the political will of the European leadership, as the legal barriers to such a move are too high.

The EC has proposed investing the Central Bank of Russia’s frozen assets in European government bonds, and using the interest to pay Kiev. The EC estimates the yield on such bonds at 2.6% per year. The EU’s legal department has so far been unable to answer the question of what to do if the EU were to lose the invested funds due to a specific turn of events.