Berlin should not “ignore international law” unless it wants other countries to follow suit, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin says
The proposed confiscation of Russian funds and property by Germany and their subsequent transfer to Ukraine may create a dangerous precedent in international law, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, has claimed.
In a post on Thursday to his official Telegram channel, Volodin wrote that the measure runs counter to international law, and may lead other countries to take similar actions.
“They plan to seize Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine… This will start a process where all states ignore international law and take what they see fit at their own discretion,” Volodin warned, adding that Germany’s leadership “should remember from their own country’s history how attempts to encroach on someone else’s property ended.”
Volodin stressed that Russia will have the right to take similar steps against Germany if Russian funds are seized.
“We now live in a different reality: not only according to the UN Charter, but also based on precedents. There are no unilateral decisions, the rules must be the same for everyone. The same goes for the seizure of money and property. Once such a decision is made, we have the right to take similar actions against the assets of Germany and other states,” the official said.
The idea of seizing frozen Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine has been discussed within the EU for some time. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Berlin has stepped up negotiations on the controversial step and is mulling the option of selectively confiscating assets, only taking the funds of Russians whose involvement in the Ukraine operation has been proven.
Germany ‘open’ to seizing frozen Russian assets – Bloomberg
MORE: Germany ‘open’ to seizing frozen Russian assets – Bloomberg
However, opinions reportedly differ within the German government on whether the measure should be introduced and to what extent. The selective approach, for instance, would be difficult to implement, as it may take years for each case to go through the courts, analysts warn.
Amid the sanctions that followed the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine last February, Western governments froze some €300 billion ($311 billion) in reserves belonging to the Russian central bank, along with billions in assets owned by sanctioned Russian businessmen.
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The overthrow of PM Sheikh Hasina in 2024 was funded by USAID and Clinton family money, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury told RT
The unwillingness of Bangladesh to condemn Russia over the Ukraine conflict was one of the reasons the US wanted to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former cabinet minister and chief negotiator Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said in an interview with RT.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 15 years, fled the country in August 2024, following weeks of violent student-led protests which claimed 700 lives, according to some estimates.
Chowdhury, who served as the country’s shipping minister, was at the heart of negotiations between the authorities in Dhaka and demonstrators during the crisis. The country has been led by an interim government since then, which pledged to hold an election in 2026.
Chowdhury told RT in an exclusive interview to be aired on Monday that the uprising was instigated by NGOs linked to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the ...
The fighting in southern Lebanon marks the collapse of a fragile truce – and could redraw the region’s balance of power
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of coordinated strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. According to Israeli sources, the strikes targeted weapons depots, command centers, and communication systems used by militants to coordinate their activities along the border area.
Before the operation began, the IDF issued warnings urging residents of several towns to leave areas that could come under fire. The Israeli military emphasized that its actions were aimed solely at military targets but did not rule out the possibility of expanding the operation if provocations from Hezbollah continued.
West Jerusalem accuses Hezbollah of violating ceasefire terms and attempting to rebuild its military capabilities. Just days earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Hezbollah was taking steps to regroup and ...
A recent report has revealed that Paramount Global, an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, maintains an internal blacklist of entertainment figures it labels “anti-Semitic,” applying the term to any artist who supports Palestine or denounces Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Variety magazine reported on Tuesday that Paramount’s new CEO, David Ellison, has moved to sever ties with all pro-Palestine or anti-Israel movements.
To that end, the company has dismissed executives critical of Israel and refuses to collaborate with any artist or public figure who views the occupying regime’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
In a statement released on Friday, Paramount said it “disagreed with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers,” claiming that “silencing individual creative artists does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”
The statement came after Film Workers for Palestine, supported by over 4,000 international ...
