MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The European Union’s potential decision to freeze Russian assets indefinitely would seriously harm its economy and would shake the euro’s positions as a global reserve currency, a senior Russian lawmaker said.
"The final decision on the Russian assets are expected to be made at a EU summit on December 18-19. If this is done under the expropriation scenario, Brussels will shoot itself in both feet of the European economy and will plant a bomb under the Bretton Woods system by shaking the euro’s positions as a global reserve currency," Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Slutsky, the decision to freeze the assets for their subsequent use in a reparations loan to the Kiev regime will mean "crossing the Rubicon," a step that will be followed by a wave of response measures from Russia. "In their Russophobic agony, European bureaucrats’ plunder is triggering a program of the EU’s self-destruction, demolition of its legal system and the consensus principle," he added.
"The interstate complicity of thieves in favor of the Banderite junta will cost much to the EU leadership." He warned.
The European Commission hopes to talk EU member countries into passing a decision on the expropriation of Russian assets during the EU summit on December 18-19. There are about €210 billion worth of immobilized Russian assets in Europe, including €185 billion held by Belgium’s Euroclear. That is why, Belgium opposes the European Commission’s plan for the expropriation of Russian sovereign assets blocked in Europe under the guise of a so-called "reparations loan" to Ukraine, being afraid of Russia’s potential response.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the potential confiscation of Russia’s assets would constitute an act of theft. Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko told TASS that options of how Russia can respond to the potential seizure of its assets have already been presented to the country’s leadership. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has warned that Moscow would not leave such actions unanswered.