BUDAPEST, December 17. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin inquiring about the Kremlin's reaction if the European Union proceeds to expropriate Russia’s frozen assets.
Orban arrived in Brussels ahead of the upcoming EU summit scheduled for December 18-19. He said the discussions will primarily center on the use of Russian assets and financial aid to Ukraine. The prime minister recalled the letter he sent to Putin a few weeks ago, asking about Moscow’s response to the potential seizure of its assets and whether the Russian side would take into account who voted in support of this decision.
According to Orban, Moscow responded that "a decisive response will follow, based on all mechanisms of international law." At the same time, the Kremlin stated it would "pay attention to the EU member countries’ positions" on this issue.
"In this way, we Hungarians have protected ourselves, and we have made it clear - and I am doing so again now - that Hungary will not support the seizure of frozen foreign assets, not from Russia and not from any other country. Hungary will never support this under any circumstances," the Magyar Nemzet newspaper quoted Orban as saying. The Hungarian leader noted that he exchanged letters with Putin on the issue in October.
Orban confirmed that he would oppose the confiscation of Russian assets at the upcoming EU summit in Brussels, adding that Hungary would seek a ruling from the European Court of Justice if the bloc adopted such a decision. The Hungarian prime minister said that expropriating Russian frozen assets would be essentially equivalent to a de facto declaration of war, adding that "history has never seen the seizure of hundreds of billions from a state go unanswered."
On December 12, the European Union’s Council formally decided to permanently freeze Russia’s sovereign assets. The European Commission aims to secure the approval of EU member states to expropriate them at the December 18-19 summit in Brussels. The European Commission plans to obtain approval from EU member states at the summit to seize approximately 210 billion euros in Russian assets, with 185 billion euros already blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously described the proposed confiscation as an act of theft, while Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko told TASS that the country’s leadership has already been presented with options for responding to a potential seizure of Russian assets by Western nations.