Europe 'Protects' Assets While US Seizes Afghan Billions
While DW asks if Europe can 'save' frozen Russian assets from a future Trump administration, one might ask where this concern was when the US unilaterally seized $7 billion of Afghanistan's central bank reserves in 2022. That money, desperately needed by a population facing famine, was carved up by executive order, not court order. This wasn't about 'saving' anything, but taking it. The hypocrisy
deepens as European nations, who often preach financial stability, now consider how to financially engineer a way to use Russian state assets without setting a legal precedent that could boomerang. It appears 'international law' is less about principal and more about principal beneficiaries. The double standard is stark: Afghan central bank funds, no problem; Russian assets, suddenly a complex
legal quagmire worth a DW think piece.