Lavrov warns West

Conflict between nuclear powers “close”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov(Bild: AP)

New threatening gestures from Russia: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses the West of moving dangerously close to the brink of a direct military conflict between the nuclear powers with its support for Ukraine.

The USA and NATO are obsessed with the idea of inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia. Such a confrontation carries the risk of an increased nuclear threat, Lavrov said in Moscow on Monday.

Threat of confiscation of Western assets
Meanwhile, the chairman of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, threatened to seize Western assets in Russia. "Washington has passed a law to confiscate Russian assets in order to provoke the EU to take the same step, which will have devastating consequences for the European economy," said the Duma chairman, adding: "Our country now has every reason to make symmetrical decisions regarding foreign assets."

He explained that Russian assets worth 280 billion dollars (262.84 billion euros) were frozen abroad. Only a share of five to six billion dollars is located in the USA, while the figure for the European Union is 210 billion euros.

According to US media reports, the House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill that would allow President Joe Biden's administration to seize billions of dollars in Russian assets parked in US banks and transfer them to Ukraine for reconstruction.