Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the EU is "not succeeding in carrying out" the expropriation of the frozen Russian assets.
Commenting on discussions about seizing of Russian frozen assets in the EU at an annual news conference in Moscow on Friday, Putin said this effort is faltering due to the severe consequences the perpetrators themselves would face, arguing that "theft" is an unsuitable definition for what the EU is trying to do.
"Theft is a secret appropriation, while they are trying to do it openly. It's robbery," he stated.
Putin warned that such actions are fraught with "the dire consequences for the robbers," adding, "It's not only a blow to the image, it is also undermining global trust."
One only needs to take the first step, and it can then be extended to other states under various pretexts, he said.
As an example, he cited the legal frameworks in some Muslim countries, where stringent laws are enacted to protect traditional values, noting that the EU may have some issues with them.
"You just have to start doing it, and then you can do it under various pretexts. For example, someone might not like the laws in some Muslim countries, which have strict laws to protect their traditional values," he noted.
Russia, for its part, will continue to defend its interests primarily in the courts and will find a jurisdiction that will be independent, he said.
Russian envoy urges German chancellor, EU chief to resign
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, meanwhile, called on EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resign after failing to secure the expropriation of the Russian assets.
"Ursula and Merz should resign if they want to prove the 'conviction, unity, and determination' they promised, after failing to achieve the illegal seizure of Russian reserves by the EU," Dmitriev wrote on X.
He added that Merz and Von der Leyen "spent all their political capital, promised results, and ended up with a devastating failure."
Earlier in the day, the European Commission announced that the EU summit participants were unable to agree on the expropriation of Russia's frozen assets under the guise of a "reparations loan" to Kiev.
Instead, a decision was made to allocate a 90 billion-euro ($105.46 billion) interest-free loan to Ukraine through collective borrowings by EU member states.
