"The Netherlands strives to be at the forefront of the EU's anti-Russian initiatives. This also applies to efforts to monitor compliance with unilateral restrictive measures against our country. As of January 11, the financial assets of individuals and legal entities in the amount of over 660 million euros have been frozen here," Tarabrin told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
Moscow has maintained that such an attempt goes in violation of the international law. The Russian Foreign Ministry has dismissed the freezing of Russian assets as theft.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that the EU plan to seize Russian central bank assets was an "escalation of economic aggression" and a trade war, and warned that Russia would respond in a correspondingly harsh manner. She said that any attempt to confiscate Russian assets would be a gross violation of the West’s own law, international rules and bilateral obligations.
"Those who are trying to initiate this, and those who will implement it, must understand that Russia will never leave those who did this alone. And it will constantly exercise its right to a legal battle, internationally, nationally or otherwise. And this, of course, will have — both Europeans and Americans understand this very well — it will have legal consequences for those who initiated and implemented it," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned commenting on the issue.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the West’s asset seizure as “unseemly business,” and stressed that “stealing other people’s assets has never brought anyone good”.