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Russia is seizing foreign currency reserves (effectively, by forcing conversion to the ruble) held by average Russian citizens. These sanctions are going to be
by jmyeet 5y ago
Russia is seizing foreign currency reserves (effectively, by forcing conversion to the ruble) held by average Russian citizens. These sanctions are going to be a bad time for them. There are no military options so what else can you do? Still, we shouldn't forget that sanctions are a form of collective punishment that disproportionately affect average citizens.
My faint glimmer of hope here is that the West finally takes actions to stop enabling oligarchs and they can start with denying them real estate in Western urban centers (primarily London and NYC). The UK too could enforce disclosure of who the beneficial owner is for an LLC, something they're meant to do but are incredibly lax about.
The US in pareticular seems to be compltely fine with civil forfeiture (which, for the record, is a disgusting practice that targets people who can't fight back). The least we could do is seize the assets of oligarchs, particularly when identified as having enriched themselves from state theft.
I'm not that hopeful.
As for the Russians trying to escape, I would too, just like I would if I were in Ukraine right now. Best of luck to both groups.
- sAbakumoff 5y ago>> My faint glimmer of hope here is that the West finally takes actions to stop enabling oligarchs and they can start with denying them real estate in Western urban centers Recently, Italy seized real estate and other properties of Russian oligarchs and their lackeys, worth ~$150M.
- fallingfrog 5y agoWish they’d start doing the same with our own oligarchs. Every superyacht is a crime against our children. The amount of resources those absorb that could have been spent combating global warming, on health care, on housing, is just absolutely disgusting. Not to mention the 10000 dollar bottles of champagne, the massive mansions.. so gross. And if you don’t think we have oligarchs.. why do you think you pay 200 dollars for a vial of insulin? Where do you think all that money goes?
- jotm 5y agoThey need to be properly taxed, but then again they are the ones making the rules, so that's hard... However all the luxury shit is made by "normal" people, there's a lot of profit in selling $1000 bottles of wine and underpants to the idiots who would buy them.
- samstave 5y agoI have always been amazed that there is not an org that specifically seeks to scuttle super yachts. Bezos $500 million dollar yacht is an example (dismantle a bridge to get the yacht through, where is the talk about re-mantleing said bridge, did it make it better? Stronger? Refresh components?) Regardless, if youre issues' require actions against, mega yachts should be target #1.
- jotm 5y agoIf one guy can severely damage a yacht (happened recently to a Russian oligarch), yeah an organization would do very well. Not sure how much it would help, but yeah.
- fallingfrog 5y agoYeah it was very gratifying to see Nancy pelosi and others doing things like apologizing and kneeling in kente cloths during the blm uprisings. I knew it was all insincere, but still, they had the right attitude for once. They ought to be a lot more scared, and pretty much begging for forgiveness right now.
- tiahura 5y agoThe EU needs to do something about Cyprus.
- samstave 5y agoDo ypu recall when RUssian oligarch assets were seized in Cyprus as it was their 'carribean' money laundering banking system. Cyprus is literally the hoard of Russian oligarchs, yet I am sure they have been divesting from Cyprus to other locales.. of which were exposed in Panama Papers.. "the bank of switzerland is seizing accounts" (lit just reported n NPR) --- the author of the book on klepto is talking about laundering wealth via anon companies to "park" (his words) wealth in straight economies. "there is an entire industry servicing kleptokrats from across the world" -- Deleware being a core component t money laundering... Kleptopia...
- tiahura 5y agoAgreed, but my understanding is that Cyprus also sells EU citizenship.
- danlugo92 5y agoNot Delaware, Wyoming.
- samstave 5y agoAnd what Military Industrial Complex Demons do we know about harking from Wyoming... hm.. Gee There are a lot of shell company shenanigans coming from there... Cheney's reign never ended. He is a blight on American history.
- samstave 5y agoMay someone ELI5 what a 'Reserve' is exactly, and how it relates to common folk?
- roveo 5y agoIt's a huge pile of money and other stuff (like gold) that the central bank can sell if the want to support the Ruble. Basically they sell dollars and buy rubles on the open market to keep the price from falling.