Possible buyers of Western bonds secured by frozen Russian assets to be targeted for countersanctions - Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax) - Any individuals or funds that buy financial tools issued by the West for supporting Ukraine and secured by frozen Russian assets will be targets for Russia's countersanctions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia "will have little patience in case of attempts to use immobilized Russian reserves as collateral for bonds that the West might presumably issue to raise private capital in order to finance the Kiev regime," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement published on the ministry's website on Friday.

"Any individuals and funds that venture to acquire such financial tools will be treated as primary candidates for countersanctions, with far-reaching consequences for their future international activities," the statement says.

In instances where sovereign Russian assets are confiscated, Moscow "will pursue a principle of reciprocity in international relations providing for the inalienable right to take countermeasures," it said.

"We have a considerable amount of Western assets and property within Russian jurisdiction to which our actions could apply. We are not planning to disclose them, but the arsenal of political and economic countermeasures with regard to unfriendly countries is broad enough," it said.

Since the moment Russian gold and foreign currency reserves abroad were blocked in 2022, Western countries have "discussed forms and ways in which the Bank of Russia's assets could be confiscated with the purpose of using them to help Ukraine," it said.

"Various options are being actively mulled now, which involve the complete or partial seizure of Russian reserves or profit from keeping them on accounts in Western financial institutions, or their use as collateral for issuing debt instruments in Kiev's interests," it said.

Moscow views the immobilization of Russian assets in Western jurisdictions and attempts to seize them as illegal measures breaching international law, it said.