Putin slams EU’s attempts to seize Russian assets as ‘robbery’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the EU is “not succeeding in carrying out” the expropriation of the frozen Russian assets. Commenting on discussions about seizing of Russian frozen assets in the EU at an annual news conference in Moscow on Friday, Putin said this effort is faltering due to the severe consequences the perpetrators themselves would face, arguing that “theft” is an unsuitable definition for what the EU is trying to do. “Theft is a secret appropriation, while they are trying to do it openly. It’s robbery,” he stated.