The west could help release billions and hurt Putin’s war effort at the same time, says Olena Halushka, co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory
While I love a good hate session against the billionaires as much as the next peon, it’s not the main reason
If we want to pretend/delude ourselves that we’re the good guys we need to operate within the rule of law (even though of course Putler doesn’t care about that).
Freezing assets - easy peasy legally sound plenty of precedent, no blow back on the various western governments who ordered the freezes.
Seizing assets however has lots of rules around it. If the west breaks those rules then they lose the “moral high ground” - the politicians care about that because then their opposition can attack them and they might lose the next election over it.
For the record I think we categorically are the good guys in this instance (Ukraine support), although it has certainly not always been true in the past for other conflicts
While I love a good hate session against the billionaires as much as the next peon, it’s not the main reason
If we want to pretend/delude ourselves that we’re the good guys we need to operate within the rule of law (even though of course Putler doesn’t care about that).
Freezing assets - easy peasy legally sound plenty of precedent, no blow back on the various western governments who ordered the freezes.
Seizing assets however has lots of rules around it. If the west breaks those rules then they lose the “moral high ground” - the politicians care about that because then their opposition can attack them and they might lose the next election over it.
For the record I think we categorically are the good guys in this instance (Ukraine support), although it has certainly not always been true in the past for other conflicts