While visiting Kyiv on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another pledge of funds to Ukraine worth $1 billion in military and other financial aid. Included in that sum is $5.4 million in seized assets belonging to a Russian oligarch and this will go toward veterans’ services.
Blinken declared “those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it.” This is the first time sanctioned Russian oligarchs’ assets will be included in an assistance package for the Ukrainian government.
Washington’s top diplomat discussed how deeply moved he was visiting a military cemetery with his Ukrainian counterpart. Although – on the eve of Kyiv’s failed counteroffensive which has yielded massive losses – Blinken actively discouraged peace talks, which Beijing has attempted to broker, ruling out any potential ceasefire.
It was widely understood from the Discord leaks as well as contemporary media reports that, before Kyiv launched its offensive, US and other Western military officials knew Ukrainian forces were woefully under-equipped and under-trained to retake territory controlled by Moscow. After seeing soldiers killed and wounded by the hundreds of thousands, US officials are nevertheless disappointed to find that Ukraine is becoming “casualty averse” as the New York Times reported recently.
The frozen funds which have been transferred to the veterans’ programs likely belong to Konstantin Malofeyev, the banking, telecommunications, and media tycoon. In May, Attorney General Merrick Garland boasted that $5.4 million in Malofeyev’s assets had been handed over to the State Department to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction and “remediate the harms of Russia’s unjust war.”
Garland added, in a statement, that “while this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine, it will not be the last.”
According to AFP news agency, Malofeyev was “indicted in April 2022 for violating sanctions related to the 2014 Russian-backed secession war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and its takeover of Crimea.” Following a 2014 US-backed coup in Kyiv, the new government launched a war against the ethnic Russians seeking autonomy in the Donbas, which killed 14,000 people.
Along with the indictment, the US seized control of the money which was largely an investment Malofeyev made in a Texas bank. Moreover, as the EU is planning on using frozen Russian funds to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction, this may include tens of billions in frozen central bank assets.
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
Besides being an act of theft, this wouldn’t be a good idea as it would be back to hunt US badly…!
Yes. If Biden can steal the property of others, it opens the door for other countries to do the same.
Additionally, I hope that eventually Americans will understand that no President should be allowed to make such decisions without oversight and without due process. By letting him get away with this, it is probably just a matter of time before Biden and his ilk consider using these tactics against political opponents here in the US.
” If Biden can steal the property of others, it opens the door for other countries to do the same.”
Other regimes have been doing so for quite some time.
For example, last year, the Russian regime stole hundreds of commercial aircraft leased from western firms by Russian airlines.
The US seems to not have expected that it wasn’t the only regime that could play that game.
It must be an interesting chain of logic that leads to calling that action stealing.
Western sanctions required the owners/lessors to repossess the aircraft, which would have crippled the lessee air carriers. I think Russian action to prevent that outcome would be more appropriately called self defense.
Western sanctions are stealing.
Eastern sanctions are stealing.
Or, rather, enforcement of those sanctions requires theft.
Just like it’s piracy when US troops hijack an allegedly Iranian-affiliated oil tanker, and vice versa.
Like I said, the only thing I find interesting about the whole thing is the apparent surprise on the part of the US regime when it discovered that it wasn’t the only regime capable of playing the sanctions game.
Well, it is like sanctions, only it concerned corporate big money powers.
It isn’t “like” sanctions. It IS sanctions. And the US is now discovering, much to its displeasure, that it’s not the only country that can use sanctions to benefit itself or damage others.
Keep in mind that Biden stole the property of an individual, not the Russian government. Moreover, the rationale was that the individual 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 have influence over the decision to take action against Ukraine; which was decided without a hearing in a court of law; and without providing any means to appeal the decision.
Two wrongs do not make a right. I am ashamed of my President.
That said, the link you provided may not say what you think it says. It depends upon whether or not the payments are still being made on the leased planes. It also depends on whether or not the western owners actually want to break the leases.
Is this a “which was first the chicken or the egg matter”? For example, Iran recently confiscated an American cargo. But they did it in response to one of our own seizures. But I’m not certain that the oil has been sold by either country.
A “Marque of Reprisal”… If we can do it, why can’t Iran?
The real long term consequence is that nobody will ever risk their assets by depositing it in the US.
At least, many fewer will be taking that risk moving forward.
Seizures such as these constitute a mind-boggling own goal by the US and its cowardly minions.
But it is not the first time, Biden sized the Afghani assets with the intention to pay the 9/11 victims. The US was created based on robbing the American Indians of their land. Nothing new and not a shred of decency to honor a single treaty signed.
Faster de-dollarization will result as no one will risk banking USD assets which all must transit a US bank and risk being frozen/stolen by the US. Makes no difference the bank or where it is located as all USDs or USD denominated assets must transit a US bank.
You seem to be under the misimpression that I support, or am excusing, US sanctions activities. I don’t and am not.
To me the takeaway is that the US regime has done this kind of thing with near impunity for some time, and is now finding out that it’s not immune to the same treatment.
Your post implies that Russia STOLE first last year and the US is responding.
If you can’t read, I suppose you might fantasize that my post “implies” any such thing.
But you seem to be able to read. So why lie?
You have the habit to imply, so you can always claim that is not what you said. Maybe you do it subconsciously, but it comes across like a link to hint between the lines. The use of the word “stole” did it in this case, you would not use it in connections with the USA confiscating other nations and their private citizens $$$ accounts, you call it sanctions. Sounds much better than stealing or robbing.
Citibank closed Venezuela’s foreign accounts. President Donald Trump intensified sanctions in 2017 and this year imposed an oil embargo that blocked the purchase of petroleum from Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. It also confiscated Venezuela’s US subsidiary CITGO, worth $8 billion.
What justifies the USA to treat Venezuela like that? Did Venezuela threaten the USA in anyway, economically or militarily to justify the crimes against the nation. People dying because they are being denied food and medicine. I am ashamed for the USA Christian value nation and for what it really stands for. Avarice is the real name. Venezuela is only one of many sanctioned countries, economic warfare against the civilians and the poorest of the nations.
“The use of the word ‘stole’ did it in this case, you would not use it in connections with the USA confiscating other nations and their private citizens $$$ accounts, you call it sanctions.”
That’s a very long way of saying you don’t bother to read what I write.
I did read what you write, that is the reason of our difference. When you read you interpret what you read, you do it as well as I do.
In what way am I lying? Maybe I pay too much attention to the meaning, the semantics of words.
When you say that my post “implies” the exact opposite of what it explicitly says, you’re either not reading my post or you’re lying about my post. Either way, paying too much attention is clearly not among your faults.
The Biden neocon bunch of misfits knows no shame, the same is true of our elected congress people, regardless of party.
Biden is not the first president to steal by sanctions.
True. But he has doubled down on them. He has doubled down on secondary sanctions to such an extent that I think his threats of war with China’s are retribution for their purchases of Russian energy.
He is also going after specific individuals and companies, for reasons that appear to have more to do with providing friends with a competitive advantage than for ensuring national security.
Good writing with a more reasonable narrative than the corporate and government media, but some of the word choices still unfairly parrot PR lies. Would I be providing an “assistance package” or “aid” if I helped a friend who was too drunk to find their keys or pay for gas get back on the road to kill and maim people? We are helping our friends headlong into brick walls and off cliffs, in the hope of weakening enemies that we created. If blinken were truly deeply moved, he’d blink.
We are helping our friends headlong into brick walls and off cliffs..
A more ringing endorsement for the reelection of Joe Biden could not be made!
/sc
“US gives millions stolen from Russian businessman to prop up Ukraine puppet regime, promising much more piracy to come”. Fixed it.
“US Pledges Millions Seized from Russian Oligarch in Latest Ukraine Aid Package – Attorney General Merrick Garland promises this will not be the last time Kiev will be provided with “forfeited Russian funds.””
The concept of private property which is a cornerstone of Western Civilization has been destroyed by the criminal United States.
Let’s hope that as Russia wins the war in Ukraine and BRICS becomes more powerful both Russia and China can steal personal property from American oligarchs and corporations.
Lets hope there will be a criminal war tribunal holding the criminals like Biden and his gang accountable.
They are the lawless government of a pariah nation. Even wars have basic laws.
“The Geneva Convention is a set of international rules and regulations that govern the conduct of wars and armed conflicts. These rules are intended to protect the lives and welfare of civilians and combatants who are no longer able to fight, such as prisoners of war and the wounded. They also aim to minimize the damage and suffering caused by war, and to ensure that wars are fought with a minimum of cruelty and unnecessary destruction.The Geneva Convention was first adopted in 1864, with subsequent revisions and additions made in 1906, 1929, and 1949. These conventions have been ratified by the vast majority of countries around the world, and are widely considered to be a fundamental part of international law.”
The USA is breaking every international law as it suits them.
The evilness of the U.S. knows no bounds. After provoking the conflict and funding the conflict, the U.S. confiscates the assets of others to pay for it.
While visiting Kyiv on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another pledge of funds to Ukraine worth $1 billion in military and other financial aid. Included in that sum is $5.4 million in seized assets belonging to a Russian oligarch and this will go toward veterans’ services.
Nice touch. Always play the veteran card when possible.
“Inexpensive” limb prostheses can cost $5,000 each.
That $5.4 million will help almost 1,100 of the 20,000 Ukrainian amputees the proxy war has produced so far.
They’ll get card thanking them for their service also.
The victor should confiscate the private assets from the Biden gang of oligarchs including wealthy Blinken, after they are legally held accountable for the annihilation of Ukraine and the killings of hundreds of thousands Ukrainian people.
And priority boarding on airline flights.
Interesting how the US government and their state run media make out China and Russia to be the aggressors but it’s them who are shrugging off the idea of a negotiated peace…. 🤔
The taking was illegal under the 4th and 5th Amendments.
Judge Napitolano:The language of the Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of all people by affirmatively declaring that the right to privacy in “persons,houses, papers, and effects” may only be violated by the government by the use of a search warrant, signed by a judge, based on probable cause of crime sworn to under oath, and which specifically describes the place to be searched or the persons or things to be seized.
What I find particularly entertaining is how much investment so-called “west” have lost in Ukraine. The best part is after liberation of Ukraine and removal of imperial puppet regime, everything is null and void. All contracts, land deals, everything! All the debt accumulated since 2014 will be written off and so-called “west” will most likely be obligated to pay reparations for the reconstruction of Ukraine. I’d say 300 billion is a good investment to get everything 10X and irrecoverably damage the reputation of so-called “west”
President Putin warned Russians like him to pull their money out of Western banks but some didn’t listen.
I’d been wondering how the US would continue funding this forever war. Now I see how: bald-faced piracy.
“Never a borrower or lender be”, just steal it.