Kremlin Calls Asset Seizure in the US Illegal, Says Peskov

Russian President’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Russia perceives the seizure of Russian citizens’ assets in the United States as absolutely illegal and negative.

“In any case, we perceive it absolutely negatively because all cases related to blocking, confiscation, or other withholding of any assets belonging to the state, to private property, to mixed forms of Russian property abroad, we consider them illegal acts,” Peskov told journalists.

He emphasized that no case of illegal seizure of Russian property abroad will go unnoticed. “No case of illegal detention will be ignored. Each case is personal, has its own peculiarities, and it is necessary to look into the details of each case, but all this will result in fairly serious legal proceedings. It will not just be left as it is,” Peskov said.

According to him, some cases involving the withholding of funds and assets are already being litigated. “Some of our entrepreneurs have already succeeded in various European countries, including appealing against the illegal actions taken against them, conducting searches illegally. Some countries have already recognized these investigative actions against our entrepreneurs as illegal, by the European courts themselves, and this work, both by our businessmen and by the state, will continue,” Peskov noted.

Regarding the seizure of Russian citizens’ assets by the US, Peskov stated that the claims of having found legal justifications for continuing this lawlessness are akin to legal nonsense. “Undoubtedly, any claims that they have been able to find legal justifications for continuing this lawlessness are absolute legal nonsense, and in any case, they will eventually go to legal proceedings in one way or another,” Peskov said.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the funds confiscated by the US from sanctioned Russian entrepreneurs would be used for the needs of Ukrainian militants. In a press release by the State Department, it is explained that $5.4 million will be used for their “reintegration and rehabilitation.”

The same amount was previously confiscated by US authorities from Russian entrepreneur Konstantin Malofeev, who has been on American sanctions lists since 2014.

Malofeev became the first Russian entrepreneur whose assets were confiscated by the US and directed to assist Ukraine. The businessman called the seizure of his funds in the US (over $5 million) a crime committed by an organized group of persons by prior agreement.