Russia-Ukraine War (Threadbanned in op)

I wasn't quoting you in particular im trying to highlight the hysteria around him and how it distracts from real-time issues.

Major General Richard Shirreff I find is an excellent source for straight up cold opinions on the war in Ukraine. I can't think of any of his projections that were wrong so far. His latest with Times radio.

EUrope is sitting on 300bn of Russian assets that the US can do fuk all about. That would go some way to funding Ukraine.

The EU legally cannot just give Ukraine the seized Russian assets. It's going to be a long legal process to go through.

The UK and US have also seized Russian assets.... How much of that have they handed over to Ukraine.... Zero!

The feet dragging is EU law. Last thing the EU needs is to hand over the assets to Ukraine and the ECJ rules in Russia's favour and now the EU is on the hook for 300bil plus interest.

That's a bit like proving a negative. Maybe you can show the EU law that allows for sized assets to be given away to a third country. A bit like the CAB here, there's a bill that allows them to seize assets they believe are from crime.

Iraq assets were seized, but (I'm open to correction) they were only distributed to victims when the UN security council agreed to do it. I can't see Russia agreeing to that.

If it's so easy to do and you mention the UK and US urging the EU to do it, why don't the UK and US hand over the Russian assets they have also seized? Lead by example and all that?

Trump is totally and utterly compromised by the Russians. There is zero chance he does anything to make their life harder. Name one instance of Trump going against Russia in the 4yrs he was president. He spent most of it fawning over Putin and cozying up to dictators.

If Europe has any sense it will press the accelerator on arms production now all over the continent whilst trying to negotiate supplies from South Korea. Allow this to backfill the fall off in US supplies to Ukraine which will inevitably happen and head off a wider war in Europe which be infinitely more expensive and destructive.

The russian government is actively hiding the figures for deaths in Ukraine and deaths from injuries in Ukraine. No surprise there. In the governments compiling of deaths of citizens they had a section with external causes where it would list cause of death. External causes included deaths of soldiers in combat, road accidents, murders and suicides. Before it listed each death and how they died. Now it's hidden in the section with no cause of death. Just their level of education.

The Russians had no problem with redistributing seized western assets in Russia. They stole plenty of aircraft and healthy businesses and franchises.

The Russians seized company assets not sovereign assets. There's a massive difference.

Why haven't the UK or US handed over Russian seized assets to Ukraine? Poster is quite quick pointing out the US and UK were pushing the EU to send the 300bil to Ukraine but fails to release both the UK and US have sent Ukraine none of the assets they seized either.

absolute total yahoo crap. Russia is up the creak and going back to the Stone Age, Don Don cant save them. Poland alone could trash Russia if it had the need to do so.

Jeez, talk about a blast from the past

There is also an article in FT from late last year (unfortunately behind paywall)

It lays out who has seized what and how much and what form

The main argument against is not legal but that it scare other authoritarian regimes from keeping funds in Europe, but if that was the case they would have left the moment Russian assets were seized, they didn’t

And do we really want to set a message to likes of China, Saudis and corrupt regimes in Africa etc that “it’s ok, invade whom you want, and don’t worry we keep your euros safe regardless” 🤨

“

What are the financial consequences?

Opponents worry that such a move would damage the international rules-based order and undermine the trust that countries show when they place reserves with other nations.The latter argument carries considerable sway with some EU member states and the European Central Bank. Confiscating Russian assets would, for some, cross a line by suggesting to countries such as China or Saudi Arabia that sovereign assets stowed in euros or dollars might not always be safe.”

There is no laws will be broken argument made at all, if anything that’s the east part

”

She told the FT the idea was “unwise”, adding: “Many countries have been damaged by many things that violated international law with no suggestion that we seize foreign currency reserves. These are the most sacrosanct kinds of assets in the global financial system.”The move would also likely require domestic legislation in many of the countries seeking to implement it, she added, although this may prove a less formidable barrier.

”

Which is a lot of bull and reminiscent of how during euro crisis a lot of thing were sacrosanct until suddenly they weren’t but not before damaging half a dozen European countries for a decade

The two main arguments opponents of handing over Russian state assets made boil down to

• it set precedent (oh noez)
• it require small changes to law (double noez)

Both are very weak arguments which podcasts and article above directly counter

The same article hints at the real reason too, there seem to be some European companies still doing business in Russia and there’s fear more of them be hurt, which is bullcrap

”

Russia’s options to counter with litigation are limited. “However, Russia will find other ways to reciprocate . . . that would mean inflicting more harm on businesses in Russia and potential other damages,” said Armin Steinbach, professor of law and economics at HEC Paris.Steinbach also points out that sovereign immunity cuts both ways. “Germany is still in some countries the target of war damages . . . [going back to] the second world war,” he noted.

“

The above I suspect the real reason for EU feet dragging, everything else is weak spin that’s easily countered and exposed as nonsense