France and Germany have warned that outright confiscation would reflect badly on the West’s financial system A rift is growing between Western allies over confiscating frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine as they continue to argue over legal ways to use the immobilized funds, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Policies enacted by the US and EU have discredited Western banking and its currencies, according to the Russian president The West is discrediting its own currencies and banking system, while established monopolies in the global economy are crumbling, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday.

The German government has prepared a model for a potential Russian attack on NATO, Bild has claimed. According to the tabloid, authorities in Berlin have described four distinct phases, culminating in potential nuclear strikes on NATO member states.