Moscow will view confiscation of Russian sovereign assets as theft, Russian Ambassador to London Andrei Kelin said in a conversation with Russian journalists.
The UK has not contacted Russia amid the Geneva talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine based on the US peace plan, the diplomat said.
„There are no contacts with the British side on this issue. They take the opposite position. Their position is not aimed at achieving a diplomatic solution to the conflict“, he noted.
The UK and the EU are harming themselves by refusing to buy Russian energy and calling on other countries to do the same, Kelin stressed.
“In the spirit of their coordinated policy, the EU and the UK are really trying to convince them to abandon Russian energy. If they want to harm themselves, no one is stopping them. That is exactly what they are doing, switching entirely to American supplies“, the head of the Russian diplomatic mission stressed.
On November 25, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking in the House of Commons (the lower house of parliament), said that during the negotiations at the G-20 summit in South Africa, he had called on the G-20 countries to abandon purchases of Russian energy. Later that day, during a video conference with leaders of the “coalition of the willing,” he called on European countries to impose a full embargo on Russian energy as soon as possible.
The British government’s budget speech, presented by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, suggests a pessimistic economic future for London, the Russian diplomat said.
“We have studied and read the budget speech. It is pessimistic for the United Kingdom and does not bode well for the coming years,” the diplomat said.
On November 26, Reeves announced a package of tax increases totaling 26 billion pounds ($34 billion).