No, the point is that this move undermines western financial system because billionaires all over the world will realize that if they or the government of their country runs afoul of the west, then their assets will be stolen. Meanwhile, freezing and seizing the assets of Russian billionaires amounts to the west doing capital controls for Russia. This would’ve been a very unpopular move if the Russian government imposed such controls, but the west decided to helpfully do that themselves. This forced Russian oligarchs to invest domestically resulting in Russian economy growing faster than the west now.
No, the point is that this move undermines western financial system because billionaires all over the world will realize that if they or the government of their country runs afoul of the west, then their assets will be stolen. Meanwhile, freezing and seizing the assets of Russian billionaires amounts to the west doing capital controls for Russia. This would’ve been a very unpopular move if the Russian government imposed such controls, but the west decided to helpfully do that themselves. This forced Russian oligarchs to invest domestically resulting in Russian economy growing faster than the west now.
I mean, many US states/cities already do forfeitures, so applying this to foreign individuals and entities is just… consistent??
What was the last billionaire over there that had their assets seized by the government?
“No you don’t understand, authoritarian thievery is our entire way of life here, we’re just being consistent.”
So we agree it’s a good thing then :)
Oh yeah, the best move the west made in a while in my opinion.