Freezing the overseas assets of the Central Bank of Russia, seizing the overseas accounts of the Russian rich, and even Russia's overseas gold reserves......
And this time, the United States wants to directly confiscate about billions of Russian assets.
A few days ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 360 to 58 to pass the Ukraine aid bill, the most notable of which is the confiscation of Russia's frozen assets to support Ukraine.
Let Ukraine use Russia's money to fight Russia, this kind of bandit logic and hegemonic behavior is jaw-dropping. This is supporting Ukraine, which is clearly demonstrating to the world what it means to "take advantage of the situation" and "hegemonism".
In addition to confiscating Russian government assets, the United States has not even spared private property, for example, last year, its Ministry of Justice openly "robbed" Russian businessman Malofeyev of $5.4 million, and "generously" "donated" it to the Ukrainian reconstruction fund.
How many foreign assets does Russia have?
According to the Financial Times, Russia's frozen assets in the hands of the West are as high as a staggering $277 billion, and these huge wealth do not come from illegal means, but are accumulated by Russia through legal international trade with its rich oil and gas resources.
After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, the European Union and the G7, a group of "good people", quickly froze about 300 billion euros of foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia, which caused a lot of turmoil at that time. However, after all, the freeze is only a means of sanctions, symbolically giving Russia a "tight spell".
But now, the United States seems to have a greater appetite and has directly played the trick of "confiscation".
The difference between the freezing of assets and the confiscation of assets is not a fraction of a star. The former is just a lock on the assets, while the latter is a blatant pry open door and looting the property.
What is the concept of $300 billion? Russia's military spending in 2022 is $86.4 billion. It rises to $109 billion in 2023. The revenue of the Russian Federation in 2023 is $320 billion.
Where does the United States get its confidence?
Behind this is the ubiquitous hegemony of the dollar and the financial infrastructure it builds.
The U.S. dollar, a seemingly ordinary currency symbol, is actually the main artery of global trade. Whenever the two countries trade, the U.S. dollar always acts as an intermediary, shuttling between them. For the convenience of transactions, each country has to deposit large amounts of dollar assets overseas. This is not only a recognition of the United States, but also a dependence on the global dollar system.
Back in history, the Bretton Woods system at that time, countries deposited gold in the Federal Reserve for safety and convenience. This is the worship of the huge economic size of the United States by other countries, the deep belief in its sound market property rights and laws, and the dependence on the global dollar transaction, payment and settlement system. All this stems from trust in the United States.
But trust is always so fragile. While other countries are willing to bear a lower rate of return on assets and exchange their people's hard-earned wealth for dollar assets to remain in the United States, the United States sees this trust as a bargaining chip to manipulate others.
This is America's power game.
How will Russia counter?
Putin's counterattack strategy can be described as a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. Since you want to cut my Russian flesh, then I will pull out your teeth without mercy.
On April 28, a court in St. Petersburg, Russia, simply and neatly froze the assets of JPMorgan Chase Bank in Russia, dealing a blow to Western countries that tried to provoke them.
So, how many assets do Western countries have in Russia? Public data show that Russia's assets in the United States are only $5 billion, while the United States' assets in Russia are as high as $9 billion.
Let's look at Russia's assets in the EU. Although Russia's assets in the EU are frozen in more than $300 billion, the assets of EU companies in Russia are even more staggering, more than $500 billion!
The United States is proud of its lack of economic exchanges with Russia, so those greedy politicians within it are clamoring to embezzle Russia's assets, trying to use this "fat" to fill the big hole they dug because of their aid to Ukraine.
But Europe is well aware that the economic ties with Russia are intricate, and once this "polar bear" is provoked, the consequences will be catastrophic, so their faces are more ugly than wall ash, because the huge Russian assets in their hands are like a bomb that will explode at any time, once touched, it will trigger a fierce counterattack by Russia.
What will be the impact?
As we all know, assets are the lifeblood of a country's economy, and they are also the golden sign of national sovereignty. "The sanctity of private property" is the golden rule of Western society, and a country's state-owned assets have now become "Tang monk meat" that the United States can grab at will.
From the perspective of financial security, this move by the United States is tantamount to self-destruction of the Great Wall. How does this reassure foreign investors who have already invested in the United States, and how do potential investors dare to set foot in this land of uncertainty?
What is even more terrifying is that this act of the United States will trigger a chain reaction. The confiscation of Russia's overseas assets is like opening a "Pandora's box"; if in the future, whenever there is a dispute between countries, the confiscation of assets is adopted to resolve it, then how can international trade and exchanges be maintained? How can trust and cooperation between countries be established?
This move by the United States is undoubtedly a stupid move among stupid moves. Its high-profile plundering of other countries' assets is actually exacerbating the negative impact of sanctions and further pushing other countries to reduce their dependence on U.S. financial instruments and institutions. This "robbery" of up to $300 billion will certainly accelerate this process, make the United States reap the consequences of its own efforts, and eventually fall into isolation.
The United States, once a self-proclaimed "superpower" on the "top of the world," has now become a "super-thief" who wantonly plunders the wealth of other countries.
The aura of the past is gone, replaced by greed and shamelessness.