BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had notified him of Moscow’s intention to take r...
BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had notified him of Moscow’s intention to take retaliatory measures against Western countries in the event of expropriation of frozen Russian assets.
"Last week, I had an exchange of letters with the president of Russia," he said in an interview with YouTube channel Patriota. According to him, he asked about Putin’s position on how Russia would react if Brussels decides to expropriate its assets and whether it would differentiate between countries depending on their approach to the problem. "In his response, the Russian president wrote that countermeasures would be taken," Orban said.
He said that from correspondence with the Russian leader he concluded that Hungary's position "will matter" if it comes to Moscow's retaliation. "Hungarian companies have serious assets in Russia. Now Hungary has a simple economic interest not to support this," he said about seizing Russian assets in the West.
Orban also explained the step could become the basis for lawsuits and undermine confidence in the institutions that deposit foreign assets that serve as guarantees for international commercial transactions. "If they are taken away from any one country one day, this case is over. No one, damn it, will ever trust any European financial institution to place their reserves," he warned. In his opinion, such actions may also hinder the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, because they will cause serious dissatisfaction from Russia. "Thus, we will worsen the chances of Russian-American peace talks," Orban said. He called the possible transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine "a theft, at least" and said Hungary does not support it.
On Thursday, an EU summit in Brussels failed to sign an agreement on the use of Russian assets. The statement on Ukraine's financing says only that they will remain frozen until the conflict ends and Russia pays some "compensation." Belgium, in whose territory the sovereign Russian assets worth 210 billion euros are frozen, fears retaliatory measures. Orban did not participate in the discussions because he arrived in Brussels only in the evening. He said that at his request Hungary's position during the discussion of financial issues was represented by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on October 23 that any confiscation initiatives by the European Union against Russian assets would entail a guaranteed painful response.
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