Tehran Institute For International Studies tiis
On October 26th, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke the literal truth when he said that Ukraine “has actually lost its sovereignty and is directly controlled by the United States, which uses it as a battering ram against Russia.”
He meant that the U.S. and its allies are doing this and are carrying out a more sophisticated version of Hitler’s “Operation Barbarossa” against the Soviet Union — a version of grabbing Russia that uses lying lawfare, instead of (as-of yet) direct military invasion, overt warfare.
The next phase of their plan — using their “lawfare” — is to be outright theft. But this technique has a history; and, a hundred years ago, it had been used against Germany by the U.S. and its allies. So, we can see what the results will be if it succeeds.
What’s going on now is the restoration of the type of massive theft from Germans by the Versailles Treaty that ended WW I on 28 June 1919, which Treaty was declared by John Maynard Keynes to have been imposed as a “Carthaginian peace [by theft that’s propagandized as ‘reparations’]”.
No ‘reparations’ were being imposed against Germany’s enemies in that war, but, in historical retrospect, there is general agreement, among historians, that the Allied side, against Germany and Austria, was perhaps equally to blame for that War, though the Versailles Treaty required ALL of the blame for it to go ONLY to Germany (and, so, only German taxpayers were to pay reparations for it, to the victor-nations — the victors).
There were no reparations by the U.S. and its allies after they raped and destroyed Iraq in 2003 on the basis of lies (which continue). The case for reparations by U.S. taxpayers (and the execution of George W. Bush as an international war-criminal) as restitution to the Government of Iraq, is far stronger than the case for the Versailles Treaty was, but nobody in The West states it (except here).
There were no reparations by the U.S. and its allies after they raped and destroyed Syria during 2012-now on the basis of lies (which continue). The U.S. Government refuses ever to restitute Syria, but instead demands Syria’s capitulation (“regime-change”).
However, now, the U.S. and its allies increasingly are demanding reparations by the countries that they still have not yet conquered, such as Russia and others that the U.S.-and-allies impose their illegal sanctions against.
Under U.N. law, sanctions are permissible ONLY if proposed by the Security Council and passed by the General Assembly; but the U.S. gang routinely ignore law, and impose their own sanctions regardless — they commit to sanctions first, and then try to find ways to ‘interpret’ international law that would allow the sanctions that they already are determined to impose regardless.
When these sanctions are asset-seizures, they are theft (even more clearly than the Versailles Treaty was), but, in some instances (such as America’s systematic massive ongoing oil-thefts from Syria), they rely upon the cooperation of their ‘news’-media instead, to so suppress that reality so as to enable the continued passivity and inattention from their voters to continue these thefts by their nation against the one (such as, in that case, Syria) that is targeted ultimately for destruction (“regime-change”). The media are part of the regime that carries-out the regime’s policy for “regime-change,” by the U.S. regime, against (for the conquest of) other countries — further expansion of the U.S. empire.
In February 2014, the U.S. Government seized control over Ukraine’s Government by means of a very bloody coup that was hidden behind public anti-corruption demonstrations that the U.S. had been organizing ever since 2011, and promptly turned that previously Russia-friendly country rabidly against its bordering nation of Russia, and tried to ethnically cleanse it of Russians so as for the U.S. ultimately to become, by ‘democratic’ means, through elections, able to post its missiles in Ukraine only about 300 miles (five minutes of missile-flying time) away from blitz-nuking Moscow so as to be able to dictate to The Kremlin the terms of regime-change there. On 17 December 2021, Russia demanded America and its NATO to promise that this now rabidly anti-Russian Ukraine never be admitted into NATO, but on 7 January 2022 NATO said that whether or not Ukraine becomes a member of NATO is none of Russia’s business. So, the only way for Russia to protect itself would be for Russia to invade Ukraine and take enough land there so that Ukraine’s closest border to Moscow would be moved back at least 1,000 miles (instead of 300 miles) from The Kremlin. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched that invasion; and the U.S.-and-allied nations promptly intensified their illegal sanctions against Russia, for this invasion, that the U.S. and its allies had forced.
On 27 June 2022, the Canadian Broadcasting Company headlined “Canada can now seize, sell off Russian assets. What’s next?”, and reported:
Selling Russian-owned assets to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction may sound like a logical approach to restitution, but as the Canadian government gains new powers to begin this process, questions remain about how it will work, and whether some issues are headed to court.
C-19, the budget implementation bill, received royal assent last Thursday [The Queen in England authorized the thefts.]. …
Canada’s stepped-up sanctions powers were discussed with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during her visit to Toronto last week. [The Queen in America likewise authorized the thefts.]
“We think it’s really important to extend our legal authorities because it’s going to be really, really important to find the money to rebuild Ukraine,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Canadian and American reporters. “I can think of no more appropriate source of that funding than confiscated Russian assets.” …
That sentiment was shared by Ontario Sen. Ratna Omidvar [Indian-Iranian pro-Shah] who proposed her own Senate legislation to enable similar asset seizures two years ago. …
“Kleptocrats must pay for their crimes, not through simply being sanctioned and their assets being frozen, but by their assets being repurposed and confiscated,” said Omidvar. …
“The question no longer is ‘if we should confiscate,’” the senator said. “The question is: ‘How should we repurpose? … This move by Canada — and potentially other G7 countries meeting in Germany this week — is unprecedented. …
“Operationalizing this is going to be a little bit of a challenge,” said fellow senator and former G7 sherpa Peter Boehm. “This is all very, very new.” …
Taxpayers in Canada, the U.S. or other countries don’t want to bear the full cost of this war, [Rachel] Ziemba [an adjunct senior fellow with the Centre for a New American Security who advises companies and countries on sanctions policy] said … as governments embark on asset seizures …
Russia’s central bank is on Canada’s sanctions list. Should these reserves be seized and handed over to Ukraine too?
[U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen’s argued against doing this in the U.S., even though it could provide more funds to rebuild Ukraine.
“That might send a message to other countries that are investing in [international currency and bond] markets,” Ziemba said — think of China’s buying power, for example. “That, I think, is why the [U.S.] treasury department and even the [U.S. federal reserve] are wary of these moves.” …
On 25 October 2022, FORTUNE bannered “Raid Russia’s ‘huge pot of gold’? Europe grapples over confiscating frozen assets to pay for rebuilding Ukraine”, and reported:
Can Brussels raid the tens of billions of euros in Russian assets frozen by the European Union to pay for Ukraine’s recovery?
This thorny legal question is currently under examination by the EU Commission as the cash-strapped bloc looks for potentially €18 billion ($18 billion) next year to keep Ukraine afloat as it fends off Moscow’s invasion.
Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission’s president, told reporters on Tuesday in Berlin that she had set up a task force to map what assets exist as well as the preconditions that must be met to seize them.
“The will is there, but legally it is not trivial. There is a lot of work still in it to reach that goal,” she said during a press briefing on the sidelines of an international conference of experts for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
“Always to keep in mind we insist on the rule of law, and therefore we abide by the rule of law, and therefore this process has to be legally sound.” …
Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday … “It’s the biggest investment project on the European continent ever.” …
While Canada has already enacted legislation to seize Russian assets, EU member states are divided as the issue could have repercussions that extend far beyond its borders and affect the future for a long time to come.
By eric Zuesse
