Putin says he’s tired of Western hypocrisy | BRICS challenges Western domination | Russia to seize income from frozen Western assets
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Moscow has had enough of the West’s impunity and hypocrisy and intends to ensure that there is justice in the world again, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin spoke to journalists, including many from Western outlets, at the end of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday.
“Is it just to lie to our faces that NATO will not expand, and then [expand] it?” Putin asked BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, in response to his inquiry.
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“Is it fair to carry out a coup d’etat, spitting on all principles of law, and funding a coup in Ukraine?” he added, referring to the 2014 Maidan ‘revolution’ backed by Washington.
“Is this just? There is no justice here,” Putin said. “We want to change this. And we will.”
The Russian president also dismissed as “nonsense” the claims that Moscow was somehow behind “mayhem” on British streets. Whatever may be happening in the UK is the result of London’s own policies, Putin said.
The head of the British Security Service (MI5), Ken McCallum, claimed earlier this month that the UK support for Ukraine has made London a target of Russian propaganda and subterfuge, seeking more power and government funding to deal with the alleged threat.
[Top image: 16th BRICS Summit. President of Russia Vladimir Putin at a press conference held as part of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan. © Sputnik/Alexandr Kryazhev]
While the West is desperately trying to hold on to its dominance, poorly concealing its post-colonial attitude of superiority, the BRICS nations, diverse in geography, culture, and religion, are finding strength in their unity and acceptance of each other’s differences.
Russia to seize income from frozen Western assets
Russia will respond in kind to the West’s use of the income generated by its frozen central-bank reserves, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said.
The US and its allies have blocked an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The bulk of the funds, around €197 billion ($213 billion), are being held at the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear. On Wednesday, Washington announced a decision to use the proceeds from the frozen assets to repay a multibillion-dollar loan to Kiev.
“If Western countries have begun utilizing the income from the frozen Russian reserves, we will do exactly the same,” Siluanov told reporters on Thursday. “We have frozen money from ‘unfriendly’ companies and organizations. We keep this money in our accounts in the same way and will use the income from these assets similarly,” he elaborated.
The income from these funds will be allocated to “the needs of the economy, the needs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation,” the minister added, noting that the corresponding decisions have already been made.
The US said on Wednesday that it will provide Kiev with a $20 billion loan as part of a broader $50 billion G7 package. The use of windfall profits from the blocked Russian assets will provide Ukraine assistance “without burdening taxpayers,” US President Joe Biden stated.
A day earlier, the European Parliament backed allocating a loan of up to €35 billion ($38 billion) for Kiev using the immobilized Russian assets as collateral for the repayments. According to Euroclear, the frozen funds had generated €3.4 billion ($3.6 billion) in interest as of mid-July.
Russia has repeatedly warned that seizing its assets would amount to “theft” and would violate international law and undermine reserve currencies, the global financial system, and the world economy.
The International Monetary Fund has also been raising concerns that such actions could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Siluanov earlier warned that global players are closely following the story involving the Russian assets and are drawing their own conclusions.
While the finance minister did not elaborate on the amount of Western assets currently held in Russia, previous calculations by RIA Novosti put the figure at roughly equal the size of the Russian funds frozen abroad. The news agency reported that total foreign direct investments in the Russian economy by the EU, G7, Australia, and Switzerland amounted to $288 billion as of the end of 2022.
