Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday termed the attempts being made by the European Union (EU) to seize Russian assets as “robbery.” "Theft is an inappropriate definition.

Theft means secret stealing of property. But in this case, they're trying to do it openly. That's robbery," Russia's state-run news agency Tass quoted Putin as saying during his annual Q&A session and the year-end press conference titled 'Results of the Year', being held on Friday.

He warned that seizure of Russian assets in Europe would undermine trust in the Euro zone as several nations like Russia keep their gold and currency reserves in Europe.