Disappointing to hear the EU boffins have ruled that there is no legal mechanism to seize frozen Russian assets.
We need to think outside the safety deposit box holding Russian frozen assets here.
If we don’t use these assets then Ukrainian reconstruction and recovery will not be adequately funded and will fail. Western tax payers won’t pay - official financing will fall off a cliff when the war ends, and the private sector cannot be expected to do the heavy lifting on what is essentially a Western public good.
We cannot afford that - we cannot afford the failure of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction, as it is now our front line with an expansionist Russia.
I would wager that many of those now arguing against using frozen Russian assets were the same people who totally misread Russia over the past 15 years. They never got the strategic threat from Russia and still don’t. They just don’t get the strategic imperative. They sat on their hands for the past 15 years when the risks from Russia were obvious.
They constantly use the “rule of law” argument but:
a) Where was the Western rule of law when it accepted the $400bn in returns from Putin’s kleptocracy? We celebrate this Western rule of law but in reality Londongrad has long facilitated corruption and kleptocracy in Russia and globally. Oligarchs and corrupt foreign leaders rob and steal from their own populations, and the West then allows them to launder the proceeds of that corrupt action. And then we defend their assets in our financial system and seemingly we are even willing to tax Western populations to fund Ukraine reconstruction because we are so eager to protect these frozen Russian assets.
Idiots! This should be a national scandal in Western countries.
The property rights of Russia, and Russian oligarchs are put on a pedestal but it’s fine to take wealth away from Western tax payers because some are terrified of taking these assets away from Russian murderers and war criminals.
A rule of law is not worth much when it bud all about ticking boxes on KYC and compliance when we have turned a blind eye to what was obvious all along since the invasion of Georgia in 2008, at least.
b) If we lose this war and the recovery and reconstruction we won’t have any “rule of law” to defend.
This war is that important - I would argue that this recovery/reconstruction effort is as important as the transition from plan to market on the fall of Communism and the USSR in 1989/91. But it more difficult as we face the headwinds of Russian threats, invasion, aggression.
If you can’t get over the property rights/rule of law issue - allow Ukraine to issue Requisition/Recovery bonds for $400bn and use frozen Russian assets to buy those. It’s a no brainer. Russia would still own the underlying assets (bonds), they are valued at par. They can pay a yield, which can go into an escrow account. And Ukraine can then figure out down the line whether it pays the principal back but that will be linked to peace talks and then a deal on reparations.
Guys/girls come on…we can do this. We are better than this. Surely.
Completely agree on all parts.