The United States government recently put forward a proposal that involves working groups from the G7 drawing up ways to confiscate $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. This is just the latest attempt by the Collective West to escalate tensions with Russia as the second anniversary of Russia’s “special military operation” quickly approaches.
The issue of confiscating Russian assets was discussed in December by G7 finance ministers and their deputies, per people briefed on the calls, which deal with how to craft such a policy and analyze the potential risks involved with such a strategy.
The US’s proposal has received support from countries such as Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The US is currently advancing preparatory work so that G7 leaders could study multiple options during a prospective meeting slated for February 24, 2024 — the two year anniversary of Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine.
The US proposed three working groups that would study legal issues concerning confiscation, the method used to apply this kind of policy and reduce risks, and options for the best mechanism to transfer aid to Ukraine.
Germany, France, Italy and the EU have manifested several misgiving about this proposal, and have stressed the need to diligently evaluate the legality of seizing Moscow’s assets before any key decisions are made. Several European ministers place major emphasis on the need to maintain an aura of secrecy with respect to the work, per accounts of the meeting.
Western nations have explored multiple options with respect to dealing with Russia which include directly seizing and spending the Russian central bank assets, to digging into the proceeds from the frozen assets or using them as collateral for loans.
The US has not issued a public statement explicitly calling for the confiscation of Russian assets. At least for now. However, US authorities held private talks where a discussion paper was circulated among G7 members. In this paper, US policymakers indirectly argued that confiscating Russia’s frozen assets would be legal in nature as it represents “a countermeasure to induce Russia to end its aggression”.
By contrast, Europe has been more gun-shy about this asset seizure proposal owing to the fact the Old Continent is where the bulk of the assets are held. Such a brash move could potentially generate financial tumult and even provoke retaliation from Russia.
Thus far, Russia has vowed to rupture diplomatic ties with the US should it decide to move forward with this asset confiscation program.
Financial attacks against Russia represent another way the US Deep State wants to foment conflict with the Eurasian power. War is a multi-faceted beast and one way the parasites in DC would like to stick it to Russia is by severely punishing it financially.
Such a move would not only be unsuccessful in terms of preventing Russia from continuing its military campaign in Ukraine, it could also prompt Russia to engage in economic warfare of its own which could potentially undermine the dollar’s status on the world stage.
It’s best that American lawmakers resist the temptation of pursuing a belligerent course of action against Russia in this instance.