Russia might eradicate diplomatic collaborations with the United States if Washington confiscates Russian assets frozen over the Ukrainian war, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as revealing on Friday. The United States “must not act under an illusion… that Russia is clinging with both hands to diplomatic relations with that nation,” Ryabkov said. Russia has talked in depth about rapports with the United States as “below zero” because of U.S. military and financial aid for Ukraine in the war currently coming the end of its second year.
Ryabkov said Russia, which sent forces into Ukraine in February 2022 in what it called an “extraordinary military operation”, would not be the one to make the effort to break in diplomatic ties, but such a disturbance could be led by a variety of factors. “The hurdle could be asset confiscation, further military escalation and several other things. I would not go into pessimistic forecasts here,” he said, also saying that Moscow was “ready for any scenario”. Some Western politicians are forcing that frozen Russian assets worth some $300 billion be handed to Ukraine to support rebuild its war-shattered economy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that any such attempt would deal a stern blow to the global financial system. He said Russia would “never leave in peace” any nation that seized its assets, and in such a scenario it would look at what Western assets it could confiscate in retaliation. Russia has hit back in a variety of ways in opposition to Western sanctions aimed at punishing it for the Ukraine war and hindering its ability to finance it. This week, President Vladimir Putin ordered that two European problems, Wintershall Dea and OMV, be stripped of multi-billion-dollar stakes in gas projects in the Russian Arctic.