MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Moscow will take tit-for-tat measures if the West confiscates Russian assets, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.
"We regard any encroachment on property rights and interests of Russia as nothing other than blatant, cynical theft in order to fill their own pockets. Such actions represent an escalation of economic aggression and an element of a hybrid war against our country," she said commenting on the European Parliament resolution calling on the EU to confiscate Russian assets.
"In case of confiscation, as we regard it, theft of assets, we will be guided by the principle of reciprocity. But in this case, it will be just a tit-for-tat, symmetrical one - it doesn’t matter how it will be called and formed - but it will be a retaliatory measure," the diplomat noted.
Zakharova stressed that in international relations there is a principle that provides for "an inalienable right to such retaliatory steps."
"The European Parliament may have forgotten that Russian jurisdiction contains a significant amount of Western funds and property, which may be subject to our actions. It seems to me that the European Parliament should somehow ask the citizens of those countries that are part of it [EU] how they feel about it," Zakharova went on.
"I will reiterate what the Russian leadership has stated more than once. Let us not expect any ceremonies, any attempts to somehow smooth all this out in the event of attempts to use immobilized Russian reserves to finance the Kiev regime," the diplomat warned.
"Any persons or entities that decide to purchase such financial instruments will be first candidates for counter-sanctions with far-reaching consequences for the prospects of their international activities," she said.
Zakharova also noted that the West, which has lost the ability to develop even pseudo-legal grounds for its actions of an aggressive nature, never intended to comply with international law and the norms of its own legislation.
"It is obvious that building sustainable trade and financial interaction with Westerners, who have proven their unreliability, political bias and commitment to double standards, is an extremely dangerous undertaking," she concluded.