EU Finds Billions for Ukraine, But Not From Russian Assets
The EU is poised to lend Ukraine €90 billion, a staggering sum conjured from its own budget and capital markets, carefully side-stepping the frozen €300 billion in Russian state assets. This, we're told, is due to 'legal complexities' and the fear of setting a 'precedent'. One might wonder why those 'complexities' seemed to vanish when the US, for instance, unilaterally 'seized' Afghanistan's
central bank assets—over $7 billion—in 2022, effectively punishing a starving populace for a regime change it had no say in. Or when sanctions crippled the Iranian economy for decades. So, when it's politically convenient, international law is apparently quite flexible. But when it comes to utilizing already-frozen Russian funds for Ukraine—rather than extracting new billions from European
taxpayers—suddenly, the rule of law becomes sacrosanct. This selective application of international financial 'principles' raises an eyebrow. It appears the 'moral imperative' to fund a war is inversely proportional to the willingness to touch assets that might actually cause a diplomatic ripple beyond what the West deems acceptable optics.