The interesting part of this article for me - despite the load of horseshit justifying european actions - is that the article mentions - albeit in passing - that using the seized funds is illegal under international law.
Manufacturing consent like a pro pirate right there.
That's the elephant in the room, the only legal basis for seizing funds would be an open declaration of war or UN sanctions. Everybody knows this is illegal, the people trying to make it happen know it's illegal. That's why they keep trying to come up with some loophole to make it happen.
Let them try. I think it's bait, a trap purposely laid by the Russians. If they do it, it will be the biggest poison pill of all time. It would kill the credibility of the European financial system.
Russia would seize billions worth of European assets still in Russia, and they would file lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions, not all of which will be under EU or US control.
I dunno how intentional this was on Kremlin's part, but yeah - I would be over here praying the EU does this if I still believed in God.
Honestly it would shatter the liberal ideology to its very core, it would be enough schadenfreude to sustain me as like europe's economy returns to the stone age.
I agree, stealing Russian assets would be the single biggest blunder of the war. Aside from Russia retaliating, the bigger outcome would be that nobody would ever invest in EU again. And doing things like trying to seize Nexperia isn't helping either. Why would anybody invest money in the EU when you assets can just be seized on whim using some flimsy pretext.
The Russians don't want us to do it.
The Russians are the eviliest of evil.
Therefore whatever the Russians don't want must be good.
It doesn't matter if it's illegal as per our own laws.
It's moral to ignore laws your enemy insists on following.
The EU wants Belgium to use 165 billions in frozen funds but when Belgium asks for financial / military securities against the fallout the EU refuses lol. They know it's illegal but just want an easy scapegoat when things go south.
Do it, make it so no one ever invests in europe again