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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia would regard the seizure of revenue from its frozen assets in the European Union as a violation of all norms of the global economic system.

This warning came after the European Union recently formalized a plan to utilize windfall profits generated from the Russian central bank assets frozen within the EU to support Ukraine’s defense efforts. This move comes after the Group of Seven (G7) countries collectively froze approximately $300 billion worth of Russian financial assets in response to Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine starting in 2022. The EU anticipates that these assets will generate between 15 to 20 billion euros (approximately $16.3 to $21.7 billion) in profits by 2027.

Peskov expressed significant concern over this decision. He said, “We can see they are being careful, they understand the potential danger of such decisions and the potential consequences for themselves which are inevitable. That is why they have gone for the smaller option (versus confiscating all assets),” he noted during a news briefing. Despite the EU opting for what Peskov referred to as a “smaller option,” he insisted that “even the smaller option is to us nothing less than expropriation.”

Peskov added that Moscow is still formulating its response to this development and will be observing the situation closely.