A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News [email protected]
Politics [email protected]
World Politics [email protected]
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
What if the Russian asset doesn't want to go to Ukraine, and wants to stay on his Florida golf course instead?
What would Ukraine do with this asset anyway?
Load it into a catapult?
Into a trebuchet
Fetcher la vache.
Quoi?
Yeah.. I of course 100% want Ukraine to win the war, but this is a bad precedent to set if any of the frozen assets are from civilians who aren't aiding or even APPROVE OF Putin's war crimes. .
If Ukraine can just confiscate civilian Russian funds that have been frozen, what's to stop Israel from taking the money of Gazan or Lebanese civilians? Or even Iranian ones?
What's stopping them now?
Freezing assets is generally used as diplomatic leverage. When there is no more leverage to be had, seizure follows. In WW2, the Western Allies seized the assets of foreign nationals deemed too close to the governments of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
What's stopping them now?
The fact that they don't have access to them. I don't know exactly how frozen assets work, but I'm 99% certain that hostile or even neutral governments don't just get to spend them as if they were their own.
In WW2, the Western Allies seized the assets of foreign nationals deemed too close to the governments of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
And the Western Allies also carpet bombed the civilians of the Dresden city center with incendiary bombs and needlessly dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. Just because the right side of a war does something doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do.
The fact that they don’t have access to them. I don’t know exactly how frozen assets work, but I’m 99% certain that hostile or even neutral governments don’t just get to spend them as if they were their own.
Laws are like Calvinball - it's made up as you go along, and only the willingness of other parties to humor you is what sustains it. In the case of nations that are outright hostile to one another, only the balance of power and the perceived likelihood of a return to normal relations prevents seizures. As Russia has seized Western property in the country, we can't be accused of firing the first metaphorical shot - as the money is proposed to go directly to Ukraine's war effort, there's little room for serious accusations of opportunistic profiteering.
And the Western Allies also carpet bombed the civilians of the Dresden city center with incendiary bombs and needlessly dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. Just because the right side of a war does something doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do.
Straying away from the wider issue of terror bombing and the atomic bombings, my point is that there is precedent for this behavior. It's not new or unheard of, it's not opening Pandora's Box. It's what countries that are openly hostile to each other with little hope for reconciliation do.
Britain bombed Dresden for three days, Germany used incendiary bombs in London, Coventry and Birmingham for three years.
Yeah, because "nazis did worse" is a great fucking excuse for crimes against humanity 🙄
well after all lots of Russian oligarch yachts have already been seized, so... might as well melt them down for slag and heave them at the Russians
The precedence it might set would be that tomorrow China might take out its assets from US and call for payments for the debt causing crash which might rival 1929.
Frozen assets can be transferred and have been transferred. But it is not the norm and not done in haste.
This will encourage countries to adopt assets/networks that cannot be frozen/transferred as easily by potential enemy countries. You won't see this mechanism being used against israel which is committing a genocide, because they're on the "good guys" side.