Kremlin hits back at claim $300bn in seized Russian assets could be handed to Ukraine
Russia will never leave in peace any country that seizes its assets, the Kremlin said on Friday, saying it would look at what western assets it could seize in retaliation in such a scenario.
The Kremlin was commenting on an idea being actively discussed in the west, where some politicians have suggested that frozen Russian assets worth $300bn be handed to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing that any such seizure would deal a serious blow to the international financial system and that Russia would defend its rights in the courts and through other means if it happened.
Key events
Russian president Vladimir Putin held a telephone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to discuss ways to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza as well as humanitarian relief efforts, the Kremlin said.
It said the two men agreed that Abbas would visit Russia at a date to be agreed.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
The United States said Friday it would place sanctions on foreign banks that supported Russia’s war in Ukraine, in a new bid to exert economic pressure on Moscow as it diversifies from the west to China.
Under an executive order to be signed on Friday by the president, Joe Biden, the US would be authorised to issue so-called secondary sanctions against financial institutions that supported Russia’s defence industry, officials told Agence France-Presse.
The US, the world’s largest economy, was sending a message to financial institutions that they have “a very stark choice”, a senior official said on customary condition of anonymity.
“Ultimately, for almost any bank in the world, you give them the choice between continuing to sell a modest amount of goods to Russia’s military-industrial complex or being connected to the US financial system – they’re going to choose being connected to the US financial system, given that our economy is far bigger, and our currency is the one used around the world,” he said.
But Russia has been seeking to reduce reliance on dollars, euros and yen since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered a wave of western sanctions.
China’s largest banks have extended billions of dollars worth of credit in renminbi to Russia since the war as western institutions exit.
The US official voiced hope that European and US banks, while not directly invested in Russia, would put pressure on partners operating in the country.
Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a call by a Russian politician to annex the former Soviet republic, it said late on Thursday.
The Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who is co-chair of the A Just Russia – For Truth party, said this week he believed Russia should annex Uzbekistan and other countries whose citizens travelled en masse to Russia for work.
The Uzbek foreign ministry told the Russian ambassador, Oleg Malginov, on Thursday that Tashkent was “deeply concerned” about the “provocative” comments.
Malginov, in turn, said Prilepin’s comments had nothing to do with the official Kremlin position, the ministry said.
Millions of migrant labourers from formerly Soviet republics in Central Asia work in Russia, and their presence sometimes leads to economic and ethnic tensions. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and later other areas of Ukraine has caused unease among other ex-Soviet republics.
Renowned Russian writer Boris Akunin, who was declared a “terrorist” by Moscow and became the target of a criminal inquiry this week, says he fears the moves signal a new milestone in the country’s history under Vladimir Putin.
“Putin’s regime has clearly decided to take a very important new step on its way from a police, autocratic state to a totalitarian state,” Akunin, who lives in exile, told Agence France-Presse in a video interview.
“Extending repression to the sphere of literature in such a traditionally literature-centred country as Russia is a major step.”
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, authorities have taken their crackdown to a new level, introducing censorship and shutting down independent media.
This week authorities sent shock waves across Russia’s literary circles by adding Akunin’s name to Moscow’s list of “terrorists and extremists” and opening a criminal probe against him over his criticism of Russia’s invasion.
The measures were announced soon after Putin said he would seek a fifth term in office in 2024.
“This has not happened since the Stalin era and the time of the Great Terror,” Akunin said, referring to his “terrorist” designation.
A top Russian diplomat has said Moscow and Washington were still engaged in sensitive negotiations over a prisoner exchange, but accused the U.S. side of leaking details to the media.
The United States said on 5 December that Russia had rejected a “new and significant” proposal for the release of Paul Whelan, a former US marine serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for spying, and US reporter Evan Gershkovich, awaiting trial in Moscow on espionage charges.
Both men deny they are spies and the US has designated them as “wrongfully detained” by Russia.
The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told Interfax news agency in an interview published on Friday: “The issue of exchanges of citizens serving prison terms in Russia and the United States is extremely delicate. Decisions in this area are often hampered by being actively discussed in public.”
He said that contacts about possible exchanges were conducted by the intelligence services of both countries.
“It is interesting that the participants in these contacts on the American side insist on their complete confidentiality. We also adhere to this line, but then certain twists occur when the White House regularly arranges ‘leaks’ and begins to discuss sensitive issues in the public space.”
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said last week that Moscow hoped to reach an agreement but that Washington needed to listen to Russia’s conditions, which he did not specify.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday that Washington was very actively pursuing the release of Whelan and Gershkovich and would “leave no stone unturned” to find a way of getting them home.
The two countries have agreed high-profile prisoner swaps in the past – most recently in December 2022 when Moscow traded Brittney Griner, a US basketball star convicted of a drugs offence in Russia – for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied that its reporter Gershkovich is a spy. He was detained in March and is accused of trying to obtain military secrets.
Whelan, arrested in 2018, was quoted by the BBC this week as saying he felt “abandoned” by the United States and his life was “draining away” in a Russian penal colony. The White House said on Thursday it was “very concerned” about reports that Whelan felt under physical threat in prison.
Kremlin accuses Wall Street Journal of ‘publishing fiction’ over Prigozhin report
The Kremlin accused the Wall Street Journal of publishing “pulp fiction” on Friday after it reported that the death of mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash had been orchestrated by Russian security official Nikolai Patrushev.
The WSJ reported that Prigozhin’s private plane was downed by a small bomb placed under a wing, citing interviews with Western intelligence agencies, former US and Russian security and intelligence officials, and former Kremlin officials. The report also said the Kremlin’s denial of involvement and Putin’s suggestion that a hand grenade had detonated onboard were false.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had seen the story but would not comment on it, before adding: “Lately, unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal has been very fond of producing pulp fiction.”
The Journal said the assassination was two months in the making and approved by Putin’s ally and former spy, Nikolai Patrushev, according to Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer.
“On the tarmac of a Moscow airport in late August, Yevgeny Prigozhin waited on his Embraer Legacy 600 for a safety check to finish before it could take off,” the report said.
“Through the delay, no one inside the cabin noticed the small explosive device slipped under the wing. When the jet finally left, it climbed for about 30 minutes to 28,000 feet, before the wing blew apart, sending the aircraft spiraling to the ground.”
Kremlin hits back at claim $300bn in seized Russian assets could be handed to Ukraine
Russia will never leave in peace any country that seizes its assets, the Kremlin said on Friday, saying it would look at what western assets it could seize in retaliation in such a scenario.
The Kremlin was commenting on an idea being actively discussed in the west, where some politicians have suggested that frozen Russian assets worth $300bn be handed to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing that any such seizure would deal a serious blow to the international financial system and that Russia would defend its rights in the courts and through other means if it happened.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine:
Russia is ready to swiftly respond in kind to Washington deploying short- and medium-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said.
Ryabkov said Moscow was closely tracking US missile development and potential deployments and was ready to swiftly take the necessary political decisions to respond in kind, the Interfax news agency reported.
Interfax also cited him as saying that Moscow and Washington remained in contact over a potential prisoner swap between the two countries.
The Ukrainian military shot down 24 of 28 attack drones launched overnight by Russia, Kyiv’s air force said on Friday.
The Iranian-made drones were destroyed over parts of central, southern and western Ukraine. At least two injuries were reported in the capital, Kyiv.
Russia may sever diplomatic ties with the US if Washington confiscates Russian assets frozen over the Ukrainian conflict, the Interfax news agency quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, as saying on Friday.
The US “must not act under an illusion … that Russia is clinging with both hands to diplomatic relations with that country,” Ryabkov said.
Opening summary
Two people were injured in what was Moscow’s sixth drone attack on Kyiv this month, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other officials have reported.
One drone hit a block of flats in the Solomyanskyi district, south of the city centre, triggering a fire on the upper floors that was quickly brought under control and injuring two people, Klitschko and emergency services said on Telegram.
A video posted on social media showed a giant orange flame going skyward in the night.
Klitschko also said drone fragments had set fire to a house under construction in Darnytskyi district on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the city.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, reported fragments from a downed drone had struck an apartment building in a third area – Holosiivskyi district – also south of the city centre.
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A Russian drone attack hit a residential building and injured one person in Kyiv on Thursday, authorities said, in a rare breach of the Ukrainian capital’s air defences. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that the incident occurred in the Solomianskyi district, reporting “flames on the upper floors” and one man admitted to hospital.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was receiving signals that Russia’s military planning and activity were slowing. “The enemy’s plans, the work of the Russian defence [industry]. There are signals indicating a slowdown. We will continue to support their slowdown,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, citing a military intelligence directorate (HUR) report. It was not immediately clear whether the president was referring specifically to the Russian defence industry or to Russian tactics and objectives in a broader sense.
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Russia has launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,700 Shahed attack drones at targets in Ukraine during its 22-month-old invasion, Kyiv said, illustrating the vast scale of Moscow’s aerial assaults. Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 1,600 of the missiles and 2,900 of the drones, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.
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Ukraine has received the last €1.5bn ($1.65bn) tranche from the €18bn package from the European Union for 2023, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said. “Hope for continued unwavering support from the EU,” Shmyhal said on X. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, last week blocked a €50bn EU aid package for Ukraine.
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Orbán insisted on calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “military operation”, mirroring language used by the Kremlin. “It is a military operation … as long as there is no declaration of war between the two countries,” the nationalist leader told reporters during his annual press conference. “When the Russians declare war on Ukraine, then it will be war.
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Orbán also said he had accepted an invitation from Zelenskiy to hold a bilateral meeting in the future, a potential first between the two leaders since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orbán said he agreed to Zelenskiy’s proposal during a brief conversation on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony for Argentina’s new president earlier this month. “[Zelenskiy] said, ‘We should negotiate,’ and I told him I’d be at his disposal. We just have to clarify one question: about what?” Orbán said.
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Russia issued an arrest warrant for Maria Pevchikh, a longtime ally of jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who has not been seen for over two weeks. The Kremlin has doubled down on its repression of Russia’s already-weakened civil society, since ordering troops into Ukraine early last year.
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Ukraine’s parliament voted this week to legalise medical marijuana, after the war with Russia left thousands of people with post-traumatic stress disorder that many believe could be eased by the drug, the AP reported. The new law, which will come into effect in six months and which also allows cannabis to be used for scientific and industrial ends, passed by 248 votes in the 401-seat parliament in Kyiv.
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Exports of goods from Russia to China will reach a record of more than $110bn in 2023, the Russian first deputy prime minister Andrei Belousov said. Moscow has deepened its already close ties with China to try to offset western sanctions imposed over what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
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Ukraine and a group of its western creditors signed an agreement on Thursday to extend through March 2027 a debt payment suspension first agreed in September 2022, the Ukrainian finance ministry said. “I am grateful to our partners from the G7 countries for understanding Ukraine’s needs in the time of war,” Ukraine’s minister of finance, Sergii Marchenko, said in a statement.
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Ukraine Russian shelling had left three people dead and several more injured at coalmining facilities in Toretsk, a town in the war-battered eastern Donetsk region. The region has seen the brunt of fighting of Russia’s nearly two-year invasion, and the Kremlin claimed to have annexed it along with three other eastern and southern territories last year.
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The Ukrainian infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said he had met with his newly appointed counterpart in Poland to discuss a cargo blockage on their shared border by Polish truckers. The truckers have been blocking the border for over a month to demand the reintroduction of restrictions to enter the European Union for their Ukrainian competitors.
