The following is the English translation of a recent post from Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, on his Telegram channel. This is his response to the recent approval from the Congress and signing by POTUS Joe Biden of a law which allows the Outlaw US Empire to confiscate billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets sitting in US banks and transfer them to Ukraine for reconstruction - I briefly covered this bill in the article linked below.
For a more detailed explanation of the so-called REPO Act and its implications, I refer you to this link. Now I will leave the floor to Dmitry Medvedev (all formatting original):
Regarding our response to the American law on confiscation of Russian assets
It is obvious that we will not be able to give a completely symmetrical response to this US rudeness about the shameless theft of our valuables. The reason is clear - we do not have a significant amount of American government property, including US money, rights and other assets.
Therefore, the answer can only be asymmetrical. By the way, it is not a fact that it will be less painful. We are talking about foreclosure, for example by a court decision, on the property of private individuals located in the jurisdiction of Russia (money, real estate and movable property in kind, property rights). Yes, this is a complex story, since these individuals usually acted as investors in the Russian economy. And we guaranteed them the inviolability of their private property rights. But the unexpected happened - their state declared a hybrid war on us, including legal and judicial war. It has created a mechanism for the illegal appropriation of Russian valuables, which is completely contrary to international and our national law. This needs to be answered. And in a certain sense it is in our legislation. These are the so-called retorsions. Art. 1194 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation states: “The Government of the Russian Federation may establish reciprocal restrictions (retorsions) in relation to the property and personal non-property rights of citizens and legal entities of those states that have special restrictions on the property and personal non-property rights of Russian citizens and legal entities.” This rule needs to be made broader, since the confiscation of our assets is the termination of property rights. This means that our norm should provide not only for the limitation of the rights of foreign persons, but also for their termination, so that it would be possible to foreclose in favor of the Russian state, Russian legal entities and individuals on the property of foreign legal entities from unfriendly countries. This will require a certain correction of Russian civil legislation.
But America and Americans must pay for their criminal decisions.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus! [sic, in Latin]
The last sentence literally means “Let justice be done, though the world perish”, i.e. a just decision should be made at whatever cost in terms of practical consequences.
The Outlaw US Empire and its vassals have been warned!
"Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action, "The utilitarian economist does not say: Fiat justitia, pereat mundus. He says: Fiat justitia, ne pereat mundus."[8] (Let Justice be done, so that the world won't perish, or, Let justice be done, lest the world perish)."
----------
For once, Wikipedia has not been utterly bolloxed!
Your informational article is good and between us the word on this ought to get better distribution. Pepe Escobar also picked it up, while Medvedev's Telegram noted close to one million views as of this morning. Several members of Russia's government have commented and said some form of action will occur in response, but here we have the legal basis for that response.