Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday called German leaders a "thieving lot" after being asked at a news conference in Tunis about a German proposal to confiscate frozen Russian assets.
Prosecutors in Germany said on Wednesday they had requested the confiscation of more than 720 million euros ($790 million) from the Frankfurt bank account of a Russian financial institution.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the institution was the National Settlement Depository (NSD), the domestic payments agent owned by Moscow Exchange, which plays an important role in Russia's financial system as an intermediary with international markets.
