Russian assets frozen by the West have been sitting idle for three years. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is urging the G20 to liquidate nearly $300 billion in stolen assets and send it to Ukraine.
“It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilized assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen claimed. “I believe there is a strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward. This would be a decisive response to Russia’s unprecedented threat to global stability.”
This amount is more than Ukraine’s entire GDP. They could never recover on their own, hence JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock stepping in for when it comes crashing down. This, yet again, brings NATO members one step closer to fully entering the war. Two-thirds of the frozen/stolen assets are located in the European Union, which recently enacted legislation that corners windfall profits from the frozen assets, marking one major step toward directly funding Ukraine with these funds.
For all intents and purposes, the people who lost their life savings are mostly private citizens who have been victims of circumstance. They did not fund Russia’s invasion or have a say in their government’s decisions. Russia may view this complete violation of international law as an act of war. Using assets seized by private citizens to fund a war opens the door to a new form of economic warfare that will only cause people to refrain from investing in countries that allow this to go on. Welcome to the total collapse of globalization.
The Kremlin announced in December that it would not hesitate to seize assets from Western nations if they were to use their own central bank’s assets against them in war. China and other countries with large Western holdings could use any new international legislation against their opponents in the future. Despite Yellen’s claims that this move would not hurt the dollar, it would certainly deter foreign investment. Why invest in a nation that could potentially seize everything depending on your government’s policies? China sees the new funding packages the US is sending to Taiwan and will respond accordingly.
Yellen falsely claims that sending off these assets to Ukraine would “incentivize [Russia] to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.” Putin could not be more vocal about wanting to come to an agreement. He has attempted to reach a peace agreement countless times but has been blocked by the neocons at every opportunity. There can be no peace with this amount of money on the line.
Others are so confident that Russia will lose that they believe these assets should remain frozen as a bargaining chip or for future reparation payments. No one knows where the money sent to Ukraine goes or how it is spent. This reeks of a massive international corruption scheme that will propel us one big step closer to World War III.
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