MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Russia will give a very tough response to any seizure of its assets and will treat the West as equivalent to thieves, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on air during a Soloviev Live television broadcast.
"This is theft. This is misappropriation of what does not belong to them. We indeed see different methods, probably not to backtrack but to somehow play in this case, because they understood that our response will be very tough, just like to all of [their] previous approaches," the diplomat said.
"When they understood it, they started attempting to finally estimate somehow the cost for them, what type of tit-for-tat measures would cover it exactly, and that they would be hit by retaliatory measures, and there will be retaliatory measures, which, I would like to reiterate, will be very harsh. Given that our country has categorized [the West’s actions] as theft, the attitude taken will be that taken toward thieves. Not toward political manipulators, not toward spin doctors or orchestrators who have outplayed their hand, but precisely toward thieves," Zakharova stressed.
The West is seeking to confiscate Russian assets to compensate for the heavy costs of maintaining "the bloody Ukrainian conflict and the Kiev regime," she added.