Europe will sooner or later have to repay what it steals from Russian assets — Putin

If Europe confiscates Russian assets, it will have to pay them back, you can bet on that, and it will still have lost its reputation and other money related to the theft to boot, President Vladimir Putin said during the combined Direct Line Q&A session and year-end press conference headlined "Results of the Year."

"Besides image losses, there may be direct losses related to the fundamental foundations of the modern financial world order. And most importantly - whatever they steal and however they do it, they will have to repay it someday," the Russian leader noted.

The EU and G7 countries froze approximately 300 billion euros in Russian assets. Approximately 180 billion euros is held in the Euroclear depository in Belgium.

The participants at the EU summit failed to agree on the expropriation of frozen Russian assets under the guise of a "reparations loan" to Ukraine. Instead, a decision was made to allocate 90 billion euros to Kiev over the next two years through a loan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced at the final press conference.

On December 12, the Moscow Arbitration Court filed a claim against Euroclear for 18.2 trillion rubles ($226 bln) from the Bank of Russia. This amount includes the regulator’s frozen funds, the value of frozen securities, and lost profits. The Bank of Russia is also considering defending its interests in international courts and arbitration tribunals, with subsequent enforcement of such court rulings in UN member states. [TASS]