In a blistering answer at his year-end event in Moscow, Vladimir Putin rejected Western plans to tap frozen Russian reserves for Ukraine as “robbery,” not mere “theft,” and warned the consequences could be “severe” for European budgets and the global financial order. Pointing to France’s high debt versus Russia’s, he said any “reparation loans” backed by Russian assets would swell already fragile deficits and erode trust in the euro system. Oil-producing states, he argued, are watching closely and could pull reserves next, fearing their own funds might be seized tomorrow.