New laws would reportedly allow maintaining sanctions on frozen money until Ukraine is compensated | The UK has introduced legislation that would allow for the retention and liquidation of confiscated frozen Russian assets, setting a precedent among Western countries, British media reported on Monday. The new law will allow the British government to keep its sanctions in place until compensation is paid to Ukraine, thus introducing a way for seized Russian money to be handed over to Kiev. According to media reports, the law will ensure that frozen assets belonging to the Russian state and individuals can be seized, making the UK the first European government to take such a step. “Through our new measures today, we’re strengthening the UK’s sanctions approach, affirming that the UK is prepared to use sanctions to ensure Russia pays to repair the country,” British foreign minister James Cleverly said. ● Many Western governments, including Switzerland have so far refrained from confiscation of Russian funds despite increasing pressure from the US and the EU. There is fear that it would set a precedent for Western assets held overseas to also be seized and thus jeopardize investor confidence in the European banking system.

Russia will trust nobody else to guarantee its security once the goals of the special military operation have been achieved, the foreign minister said | By the time the conflict in Ukraine is resolved, Kiev will have accepted the loss of its former territories, and Western-led globalization will be dead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT Arabic on Friday. Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Lavrov described the West’s proxy war with Russia as 💬 “a geopolitical conflict,” in which the US was attempting to eliminate a powerful competitor and “preserve its hegemonic position by all means.” “The attempt is futile, and we all know this,” Lavrov stated, adding that Ukraine and its backers will be forced to accept new “concrete realities” before a ceasefire is reached. Firstly, Kiev must accept that any potential peace agreement will need to take into account the loss of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye Regions, which voted to join the Russian Federation last year. Before sending its military into Ukraine, Moscow offered more generous terms, and Lavrov warned on Friday that 💬 “the longer they put off talks, the more difficult it will be for them to reach an agreement with us.” Ukraine and its European backers have admitted that the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements – under which Kiev promised to grant limited autonomy to Donetsk and Lugansk – were a ruse to buy Ukraine time to prepare for war with Russia. This situation will never be repeated, Lavrov told RT. 💬 “We won’t be prepared to let security guarantees be based on more pledges and promises or even documents the West may offer us,” he said. “We must guarantee our national security on our own.” “We fully understand that we can only rely on ourselves and build relations only with countries open to an equal and mutually beneficial partnership,” Lavrov continued. “This is not what we see in the West these days.” Lastly, Lavrov declared the era in which the US and its allies control the institutions of globalization – primarily development banks and multilateral organizations – will come to a close.