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Stealing Russian Assets Spells End of US as 'Bastion for Rule of Law'

Russian ruble banknotes of different denominations
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Last week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would enable the White House to steal several billion dollars of Russian assets currently frozen in US banks under the pretext of aiding the regime in Kiev and punishing Russia.
US lawmakers’ efforts to confiscate frozen Russia’s financial assets abroad and hand them over to Ukraine does not bode well for the United States in the long run, said financial and geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo.
“Congress is literally throwing the entire concept of foreign exchange into the trash can and lighting it on fire by giving President Biden this power, which no one should have,” he told Sputnik. “This isn’t about Russia or anyone’s opinion about what they are doing in Ukraine. This is about the US as a bastion for the rule of law as it pertains to business and banking.”
According to Luongo, the US moving to brazenly appropriate Russian assets “will signal to the rest of the world that their money is no longer safe from confiscation if it is held in US banks,” that anyone’s assets could be seized as easily if they earn the ire of “someone in Congress.”

“Every country looking to do business with the US in the future now lives with that. This one act is what signals the end of the modern era of finance and trade. From here the world will fracture and the US will lose trillions in future trade,” the analyst remarked. “This confirms my argument that US leadership [figures] are vandals intent on the collapse of the US rather than having any allegiance whatsoever to the people or what’s left of the ideals on which the country was founded.”

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.04.2024
Economy
EU Not Going to Seize Frozen Russian Assets for Now Due to Lack of Legal Clarity - Borrell
He did note, however, that this move likely will not have “immediate effects that we’ll see play out in capital markets beyond accelerating trends already in place,” simply due to the fact that there is currently no alternative to the US dollar in global trade.
“The euro gave up that potential role when they went to negative interest rates last decade. The Chinese yuan is not ready for this role either. But with this move by the US, it will now gain momentum towards fulfilling that role. And, believe me, the Chinese government is fully aware of this,” Luongo explained.
“Capital flows to where it is treated best. This was the US’ real superpower for all of these years. We treated capital well. It’s what drove our banking dominance. That dominance will fade and the world, in the short term, will turn to gold until a new system emerges,” he added.
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