"Since 2002, Russia has submitted requests to the UK authorities for the extradition of 61 people accused of or convicted of economic crimes. The amount of damage is estimated at over 0.5 trillion rubles [$8.6 billion]. This is only direct damage, while the amount of funds they've transferred abroad is significantly higher," Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chayka told the channel NTV.
He emphasized that the Criminal Finances Act had come into force in the UK, and any foreign property owner would have to explain the origin of his/her assets.
"And I assure you, it will be very difficult for many of them to do this. And we very much hope that this law will be applied by the British authorities in accordance with the norms of a civilized state, and not the principle of "rob what was robbed." I mean, they have stolen from Russia and now the UK will take everything into its budget. You can keep the criminals, but return the money. This is our money," "the prosecutor general continued.
As the Prosecutor General noted, "that the way the story of the former GRU officer Skripal's poisoning is unfolding is not news for us."
"The scenario with the story of the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter is not new to us. We're not facing such actions for the first, but for the third time. All the provocative actions of official London are absolutely identical to those they committed in connection with the alleged attempt on Boris Berezovsky in London and the establishment of the circumstances surrounding Alexander Litvinenko's death in England in November 2006," he said.
According to Chayka, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office "will take an unprecedented step and promulgate copies of individual documents from the correspondence with the UK Ministry of Internal Affairs, including, with Teresa May, who at that time led the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
READ MORE: Russian Embassy Requests Meeting With Boris Johnson to Discuss 'Salisbury Case'
After accusing the Kremlin of being behind the poisoning of the Skripals, the UK government expelled 23 Russian diplomats from the country. Moscow, in turn, has strongly denied the "baseless" claims and responded with tit-for-tat measures.
The United Kingdom is ignoring Russian information requests regarding the death of Nikolai Glushkov, a Russian national and former top manager of the country's Aeroflot airline, who was found dead in the United Kingdom earlier in March, Russian Ambassador to London Alexander Yakovenko said.
"There are 43 Russian criminals on demand, who were involved in crimes in Russia, with some of them being serial killers, who have a residence permit and whom the UK has refused to extradite to Russia," Yakovenko said.
