Russia has recently threatened to seize assets belonging to the United States and Western allies of Ukraine on Russian soil.
Knewz.com has learned that the threat is a reaction to the G7 summit's decision to loan Ukraine $50 billion from frozen Russian assets.
Russian Press Minister Maria Zakharova shared the threat on the Telegram channel of the state-run news agency TASS.
"Moscow’s response to the West’s confiscation of Russian assets may extend to Western property and funds in Russian jurisdiction," Zakharova said via the outlet in a thread of Telegram posts.
"G7 reached a political agreement on the assets of the Russian Federation, it concerns only the use of interest, not confiscation... Revenues from the assets of the Russian Federation will be used under guarantees of lending to Kyiv."
She made it clear that the threat was made towards "a number of G7 countries" that made "declarations on the transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine."
It is worth noting that the G7 member states, along with the European Union, froze around $325 billion worth of Russian assets since the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022. According to BBC, these frozen assets are generating approximately $3 billion in per annum interest.
At the 2024 G7 summit in Italy, which concluded on Saturday, June 15, member states decided to use the $3 billion interest to raise money for a $50 billion fund for Ukraine, meant to strengthen the nation's war efforts and economy.
U.S. President Joe Biden commented on the substantial amount at the joint press conference at the summit, saying, "Put that money to work for Ukraine and send another reminder to Putin that we're not backing down."
"[Putin] cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us, and we'll be with Ukraine until they prevail in this war," the President added, per BBC.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reportedly described the G7 plan as "game-changing."
The outlet also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin dubbed the move as "theft" and vowed that it would "not go unpunished."
However, this is not the first time Russia has threatened to seize U.S. assets located in the nation, as Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, had expressed the same rhetoric back in April, according to Reuters.
The threat in April was in response to the U.S. House of Representatives passing a bill that allowed President Biden to seize Russian assets held in American banks and transfer them to Ukraine.
"The reason is clear - we do not have a significant amount of American state property, including money, rights, and other US assets. Therefore, the answer can only be asymmetrical. It is not a fact that it will be any less painful," Medvedev wrote on Telegram at the time, per Reuters.
"We are talking about the foreclosure, for example by a court decision, on the property of private individuals located in the jurisdiction of Russia (money, real estate, and movable property in kind, property rights)."
"Yes, this is a complex story, since these individuals usually acted as investors in the Russian economy... And we guaranteed them the inviolability of their private property rights. But the unexpected happened - their state declared a hybrid war on us. This must be answered."
