MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the attempts of the Group of Seven (G7) countries to dictate financial and economic rules to the global majority unacceptable.
"It is unacceptable when the G7, which accounted for only 30% of global GDP in 2023, tries to dictate its financial and economic rules to the global majority," she said at a briefing, commenting on the inadequacy of the current international monetary and financial system.
"The share of the BRICS countries in the world GDP has reached 36% and there are other states that are the global majority. So why do the G7 countries behave so rudely within the framework of the Bretton Woods institutions?" she added.
Zakharova noted that since 2022, the main flow of resources from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank "at the direction of Western shareholders was redirected to support the Kiev regime." "While the states of the global South that are really in need cannot receive the necessary financial assistance. <...> Of course, in these conditions there isn’t and cannot be any alternative to a comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture and its key institutions. The agenda of the IMF and the World Bank must fully correspond to their financial and economic profile and the interests of global development," she stressed.
According to the diplomat, Russia believes that "the international monetary and financial system should be non-discriminatory, equally accessible and fair." She also noted the importance of approving a new procedure for calculating quotas in the Fund, despite the US wanting to maintain a controlling stake.
Zakharova also added that Moscow would take tit-for-tat measures if the West confiscates Russian assets. "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.
"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.
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.