# NARRATIVE: Lavrov cries theft — when Moscow makes a spectacle with victims' money

> On June 24, 2026, at the Primakov Readings — an annual Moscow forum designed to polish Russia's diplomatic image — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took the floor with fierce conviction to denounce what he calls "outright theft." The object of his fury: the 45 billion euros transferred to Ukraine from the proceeds of Russian assets frozen by G7 countries and the EU. In a speech o

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Reportage
- Published: 2026-06-29
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/recit-lavrov-crie-au-vol-quand-moscou-fait-du-spectacle-avec-l-argent-des-victim

## Introduction: a speech caught between calculated outrage and involuntary admissions

### The Primakov Forum, theater of Russian resentment

On **June 24, 2026**, at the **Primakov Readings** — an annual Moscow forum designed to polish Russia's diplomatic image — Foreign Minister **Sergei Lavrov** took the floor with fierce conviction to denounce what he calls "**outright theft**." The object of his fury: the **45 billion euros** transferred to Ukraine from the proceeds of Russian assets frozen by **G7** countries and the **EU**. In a speech of high diplomatic theatricality, he claimed this practice "**undermines the credibility of global financial institutions**" and calls into question the functioning of global governance bodies.

This speech is a fascinating document. Not because it tells the truth — it offers only a carefully distorted version of it — but because it reveals the state of mind of a Russian diplomatic machine backed into a corner, which can find no better argument than an outraged cry at the consequences of its own actions. **Lavrov** is not shocked that Russia's money is being used to rebuild Ukraine. He is shocked that the world has not buckled under his pressure.

### The frozen-asset mechanism — why it is legal and legitimate

To understand why **Lavrov**'s indignation rings hollow, one must recall the mechanism at stake. In response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in **February 2022**, **G7** countries and the **European Union** froze roughly **300 billion dollars** in Russian sovereign assets held within their financial systems. These assets generate interest and income. In 2024, the **G7** decided to use those revenues to fund a **50 billion dollar** loan to Ukraine, to be repaid through future proceeds from the frozen assets. It is a legally complex measure, but one that falls within the framework of international law.

According to published data, the **G7 has already delivered 45.5 billion dollars** in loans to Ukraine from these frozen assets. The word "theft" that **Lavrov** uses is a deliberate distortion: what is happening is the use of funds belonging to the aggressor state to compensate, in however small a part, for the devastating cost of the aggression.

*Lavrov calls it theft. I call it imperfect distributive justice. When a state invades its neighbor, destroys its cities, kills its civilians, and pillages its resources, using a fraction of its frozen assets for reconstruction aid is not theft — it is the very definition of international accountability. The real question is why this was not done sooner and on a larger scale.*

## The arithmetic of Russian outrage

### 45 billion against trillions of destruction

Let us put the figures in perspective. The **45 billion euros** denounced by **Lavrov** represent a fraction of the damage Russia has inflicted on Ukraine. The most conservative estimates of war damage to Ukraine — destroyed infrastructure, razed industrial facilities, farmland rendered unusable by mines — run into the **hundreds of billions of dollars**. The **World Bank** and the European Commission have estimated reconstruction needs at **more than 500 billion**.

In that context, **45 billion** — barely **9 percent** of the minimum estimate — represents a symbolically important but materially insufficient contribution. If **Lavrov** genuinely wanted to talk about financial fairness, he should start by adding up the bills of destruction his country has generated. The arithmetic would not be in his favor.

### The credibility of global financial institutions — a very selective Russian concern

**Lavrov**'s argument about the "credibility of global financial institutions" deserves particular scrutiny. Russia, which has routinely used its foreign currency reserves as a geopolitical tool, its energy exports as economic blackmail, and its connections to the international financial system to fund its military-industrial complex, is poorly placed to worry about the credibility of those very institutions.

What genuinely worries Moscow is not the abstract credibility of the world financial system — it is the precedent. If the sovereign assets of an aggressor state can be mobilized to compensate its victims, then other states — **China**, **Iran**, **North Korea** — are taking note. **Lavrov**'s warning is addressed to a specific audience: the capitals that might one day find themselves in the same situation as Moscow.

*Russia worrying about the credibility of global financial institutions is like an arsonist weeping in front of the firefighters. This country spent years weaponizing gas, oil, bank deposits, and financial flows as tools of political influence. Lavrov can cry theft — his argument only fools those who want to be fooled.*

## The Western response: firmness and unity maintained

### The EU extends its sanctions for a full year

On the very same **June 24, 2026** — and this is no coincidence — the **European Union** decided **for the first time** to extend its sanctions against Russia for a full year, abandoning the previous six-month renewal cycle. This decision, reported by **NewsUkraine RBC**, sends a clear signal: the **EU** is not yielding to Russian pressure, is not divided by economic fatigue, and views sanctions as a long-term instrument rather than a temporary crisis-management measure.

The annual rather than six-month extension is technically significant. It narrows the diplomatic window of opportunity for Moscow to exploit renewal periods to sow discord among member states. It is a direct response to Russian attempts to divide **Europe** on the Ukrainian question.

### The solidity of the G7 front despite the pressures

Beyond the **EU**, the **G7** maintains remarkable unity on the question of frozen Russian assets. Despite pressure from certain financial circles worried about long-term legal implications, **G7** governments have held their position: frozen Russian assets will remain frozen until Russia pays reparations to Ukraine. This condition, in the current state of affairs, amounts to an indefinite freeze.

This position is economically significant. The **300 billion dollars** in frozen Russian assets generate several billion in annual interest. Over ten years, that is a substantial financial resource to support Ukrainian reconstruction — and a continuing economic punishment for Moscow.

*Europe extends sanctions for a full year, the G7 maintains the asset freeze, and Lavrov gives a speech at the Primakov Forum. That asymmetry — between coordinated Western action and impotent Russian rhetoric — says everything about who actually controls the economic situation of this war.*

## The implications for the global financial architecture

### A precedent that will rewrite the rules

Using frozen sovereign assets to fund Ukrainian resistance does effectively create a precedent in international law. **Lavrov** is right on this precise point: what the **G7** and the **EU** are doing has no direct equivalent in the recent history of international financial relations. But a precedent is not necessarily bad — it can be the foundation of a fairer new norm.

The norm taking shape is as follows: a state that massively violates international law by attacking a sovereign neighbor exposes its assets held in Western financial systems to compensatory use. This is not theft — it is state accountability. Jurists will debate the modalities for decades. But the principle is legitimate.

### Adversaries observe and draw their lessons

**China**, which holds hundreds of billions in assets within Western financial systems, is watching closely. If **Beijing** were ever to cross the red line of military intervention in **Taiwan**, the precedent of the frozen Russian assets would become immediately relevant. This is one reason why **China** is following these developments with particular attention, and why it is building up its **gold** reserves and seeking to internationalize the **yuan** — to reduce its exposure to the Western financial system.

**Iran** and **North Korea**, which operate largely outside the Western financial system, are less exposed. But the precedent carries deterrent value beyond the assets themselves: it signals that the **West** is prepared to use economic power as a strategic defensive weapon.

*China is watching Moscow lose access to its 300 billion and drawing its conclusions. This may be the most underestimated contribution of the Ukraine war to global international security: it has shown the world that the West can and will use its financial power as a tool of deterrence. Not perfectly, not without internal debate — but it will.*

## Russian diplomacy in survival mode

### The Primakov Forum: a bubble for nostalgia

The **Primakov Readings** are a revealing microcosm of the current state of Russian diplomacy. Named in honor of **Yevgeny Primakov**, former intelligence chief and foreign minister who formulated the doctrine of a **multipolar world** as a counterweight to American hegemony, this forum brings together voices favorable to the Russian narrative — whether Russian, Chinese, or carefully selected representatives of the "**Global South**."

In this echo chamber, **Lavrov**'s speech was predictable: indignation about frozen assets, accusations of "Western financial colonialism," calls for a new global governance system. The problem is that this speech, however well-rehearsed, changes nothing on the ground — military, economic, or diplomatic.

### The growing isolation of Russian diplomacy

Despite **Lavrov**'s efforts to portray Russia as the champion of the "**Global South**" against a neocolonialist **West**, the diplomatic reality is less flattering. The great majority of the world's nations voted for the **UN** resolutions condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Countries that refuse to sanction Russia generally do so out of immediate economic self-interest, not out of conviction in **Moscow**'s theses.

The **Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression** against Ukraine, signed by **36 states** in May 2026 with the **Netherlands** as the host country, illustrates Russia's growing isolation in the international legal space. **Lavrov** can talk about theft — others are working to put him on trial for the crime of aggression.

*There is something pathetic about Lavrov's trajectory — one of the most skilled diplomats of his generation, reduced to crying theft in a forum preaching to the converted, while his G7 counterparts extend sanctions and international judges prepare their dossiers. This is no longer diplomacy. It is rhetorical surrender.*

## Emerging countries: the "Global South" between rhetoric and real interests

### When anti-Westernism serves Moscow's interests

One of the central axes of **Lavrov**'s speech at the **Primakov Readings** was the appeal to the "**Global South**" — that constellation of nations refusing to choose a side in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Behind this rhetoric of third-world solidarity lie very concrete economic realities: **China** buys Russian oil at a discount, **India** imports Russian fertilizers and hydrocarbons, and several African countries remain dependent on Russian wheat and weapons. This is not ideology — it is interest.

Russia's manipulation of these economic interests is calculated and deliberate. **Moscow** offers cut-price oil and gas, weapons without political conditions, and a discourse of "**respect for sovereignty**" that resonates in capitals that have lived through decades of Western condescension. But this strategy has its limits: the countries enjoying Russian discounts today know very well that Russia is an increasingly unreliable long-term supplier.

*Lavrov sells anti-Westernism as though it were an ideal. It is actually a commercial service. China does not support Russia out of conviction — it profits from a desperate energy supplier. India is not anti-Western — it is pragmatic. Confusing short-term self-interest with strategic alignment is the fundamental error at the heart of Russia's narrative about the "Global South."*

## The legal mechanism: how Russian assets are being used

### From confiscation to Ukrainian reconstruction

The mechanism for mobilizing **frozen Russian assets** — roughly **300 billion dollars** in total, the vast majority immobilized in **Europe** through **Euroclear** — is more nuanced than **Lavrov** presents. The **G7** states and the **EU** did not simply "take" this money: they built a legal framework allowing the **interest generated** by these assets to fund **Ukraine**. The **45.5 billion dollars** already transferred come largely from these interest payments, supplemented by loans backed by the assets themselves.

This mechanism was carefully designed to withstand legal challenges — and it is doing so. Russian attempts to contest these transfers before international tribunals have so far failed or are ongoing. The financial machinery works. And **Lavrov**, despite his cries, cannot stop it by decree.

*It is almost comical to watch Lavrov invoke international law to defend Russian assets while his armies violate international law in Ukraine on a daily basis. The selectivity of Moscow's respect for the law is so manifest that it no longer even requires commentary — it denounces itself.*

## The resilience of the sanctions regime: two years of pressure

### Sanctions holding better than expected

In **2022**, some economists predicted that **Western sanctions** against Russia would quickly collapse under pressure from the diverging economic interests of **G7** and **EU** members. In June **2026**, those predictions have been proven wrong. The **EU** just approved, for the first time, a **one-year extension** (instead of the usual six months) of its sanctions against Russia — a remarkable signal of durability and political cohesion in the context of internal European tensions.

The economic effects are accumulating: **Russia** faces **persistent inflation**, **high interest rates** that are choking investment, a **labor shortage** exacerbated by military losses, and a **growing dependence on China** that is gradually transforming Moscow into an economic satellite of Beijing. This is not the immediate collapse some had hoped for — but it is a structural deterioration that deepens each quarter.

*Sanctions are not an instant miracle. They are constant, accumulating pressure that wears, that constrains. Russia can survive sanctions for one year, two years, five years. But with each passing year, the bill grows larger, the options narrow, and dependence on Beijing deepens. Lavrov is crying. Time is working against him.*

## Conclusion: Lavrov's narrative will not change reality

### The money will go to Ukraine regardless

The **45 billion euros** already transferred to Ukraine from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets will not be returned. The assets themselves will remain frozen until Russia pays reparations — which, in the current state of affairs, is not on the agenda. **Lavrov** can cry theft in every forum he pleases: the financial machinery is in motion, and it will not stop under pressure from outraged speeches.

### Justice takes time, but it moves forward

**Lavrov**'s cry reveals a deeper truth about the state of Russia in **2026**: Moscow is losing not only on the military front, but also on the economic, legal, and diplomatic fronts. The mobilization of frozen assets, the extension of sanctions, the construction of the **Special Tribunal** — these are pieces of a puzzle that is slowly but surely drawing the outline of international accountability for the crime of aggression. This is not theft. It is the beginning of justice.

*Lavrov is a brilliant rhetorician in a system that has lost the war of reality. The 45 billion transferred to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets are more eloquent than any speech at the Primakov Readings. Economic, legal, and military reality cannot be negotiated with words — however well constructed, however skillfully delivered by a seasoned diplomat.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [TASS — Funds from Russian assets sent to Kiev are stolen money — Lavrov — June 24, 2026](https://tass.com/politics/2150917)

- [Fakti.bg/RIA Novosti — G7 has already provided $45.5 billion in loans to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets — June 24, 2026](https://fakti.bg/en/world/1063042-ria-novosti-g7-has-already-provided-455-billion-in-loans-to-ukraine-from-frozen-russian-assets)

- [NewsUkraine RBC — EU agrees for first time to extend sanctions against Russia for full year — June 24, 2026](https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/eu-agrees-for-first-time-to-extend-sanctions-1782317212.html)

### Secondary sources

- [The Guardian — Ukraine war briefing: Russian-occupied Crimea declares emergency — June 27, 2026](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/27/ukraine-war-briefing-russian-occupied-crimea-declares-emergency-as-zelenskyys-forces-step-up-attacks)

- [Justice Info — The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression enters its skeleton phase — June 26, 2026](https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/regions/ukraine)

- [Euromaidan Press — Trump told Zelenskyy he was impressed by Ukraine's battlefield results — June 24, 2026](https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/06/24/trump-told-zelenskyy-he-was-impressed-by-ukraines-battlefield-results-ft-reports/)

---

Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/recit-lavrov-crie-au-vol-quand-moscou-fait-du-spectacle-avec-l-argent-des-victim