Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his country would “respond in kind” to the seizure of its merchant vessels by EU countries, defining such plans as “nothing more than piracy and robbery.”
“If this begins to be implemented in practice, we will be forced to respond in kind,” Putin said while participating in the final stages of exercises by Russia’s Pacific Fleet in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the country’s Far Eastern Sakhalin region.
Putin said Russia sees authorities in some EU countries attempting to restrict the movement of its merchant vessels “in violation of international maritime law.” He argued that these countries have even considered seizing them and selling the property, which he said “they stole from us.”
“This, of course, is nothing less than piracy and robbery,” Putin went on to say, adding that Russia’s response would not necessarily occur in the waters where the seizures take place, but “wherever we deem necessary and appropriate, anywhere,” including in the Pacific.