9 Comments

So US cannot seize Russian assets but Russia can seize other country's land. I got you

Expand full comment

International law forbids the unilateral seizure (by a powerful state) of a sovereign's central bank reserves. This is because the central bank's system of reserves, like a nation's sanitary system, is a public good.

International law - and UN treaties - similarly forbid the unilateral seizure of land.

So both Russia and the US have flouted international law.

Two wrongs do not make a right.

Expand full comment

Which international law forbids any actions of a sovereign central bank within its domain of activities with its own currency? There is no such law. Please do not play the games.

Expand full comment

The International Economic Emergency Powers Act and Implied Presidential Authority.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/giving-russian-assets-ukraine-freezing-not-seizing

"As Andrew Boyle, an international lawyer, Lee Buchheit, a longtime Cleary Gottleib partner, and Mitu Gulati, my colleague at the University of Virginia School of Law, all have observed, IEEPA has a narrow exception, codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1702(1)(C), authorizing the president, “when the United States is engaged in armed hostilities or has been attacked by a foreign country or foreign nationals[,]” to confiscate foreign-owned property and to dispose of it as he sees fit.

As Boyle observes, Congress adopted IEEPA with the goal of trimming the authorities that presidents had had since World War I, including a broad confiscation power. The 2001 Patriot Act later added this narrowly confined confiscation authority.

But this exception does not apply to Russia, which has not “attacked” the United States as a matter of international law and with which the United States is not engaged in armed hostilities. So, IEEPA does not permit what Tribe, Lewin, Zelikow and Johnson propose. "

Expand full comment

This is an orthogonal point and completely irrelevant. My argument stays. There is no international law. Any sovereign country is free to do whatever it wants within its *own* borders (and USD banking and asset system is within the borders of the FED). You do not like what another sovereign did? You can go to the international court. Or do any actions within *your* sovereign borders against any assets belonging to that sovereign.

Expand full comment

Looks like Guns and ammo and personal body armor might be the best investments one can make. Along with those Tuppertubs of freeze-dried foot being peddled by various patriots.

And do you really believe Putin is a dictator, or is that just a mandatory inclusion to render the article publishable?

Expand full comment

I find your comment offensive. Putin is a dictator AND the aggressor in this case. He has led the violent invasion of sovereign government's territory - and committed unspeakable crimes against innocent civilians. Not to mention his careless sacrifice of the lives of thousands of Russian soldiers. My post looks beyond the awful destruction of the Ukraine war, to the even graver threat of a Third World War....

Expand full comment

Where the hell are we going? And what can WE do about it? Do we just say: Woe is me?

Expand full comment

The one thing we can do is to separate truth from propaganda, and be clear about what is happening so that we can hold our politicians to account, and so that we do not stumble blindly into, and cheer on, another world war...as happened before the 1914-8 World War...

Expand full comment