MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. Russia will consider any encroachment on its assets seized by the West as an element of hybrid war and escalation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.
"We regard any encroachment on the property rights and interests of our country as nothing more than blatant, shameless theft and the desire to fill their own pockets. In a broader sense, such actions de facto represent an escalation of economic aggression and an element of a hybrid war against the Russian Federation," she said.
According to the diplomat, discussions in the West have once again intensified about the confiscation of "frozen, as they call it, assets of the Bank of Russia in order to use them to pay for military supplies to Kiev."
Zakharova said that Western countries, through their actions, are destroying the global monetary and financial system and violating their own laws.
The diplomat added that the recently adopted law in the United States which gives the US president the right to use confiscated Russian assets to help Ukraine "has no legal basis."
"The document does not contain a legal basis for such confiscation," Zakharova stressed.
"It is well known that attempts to expropriate Russian assets directly contradict the legislation of those countries and associations that intend to resort to such measures," she added.
The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan seized Russia's assets in the amount of about $300 billion after the start of the special military operation. Of this amount, about $5-6 billion is in the United States.
On April 24, the US Congress approved a package of bills on providing military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, on the confiscation of frozen assets of the Russian Federation in fact for their transfer to Kiev, as well as on the introduction of additional sanctions against China.