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Johan Van Overtveldt is chairman of the European Parliament’s funds committee and Belgium’s former minister of finance (2014-2018).
Inside the considerably, if not overly, formidable agenda the European Union has been outlining over the previous months, the reconstruction effort wanted for war-torn Ukraine occupies a distinguished place.
Other than the few diehard followers of Russian President Vladimir Putin that stay inside the EU — equivalent to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — there’s now a rising consensus that Putin and his motley crew should contribute to this main effort in a major means. Nonetheless, it gained’t be straightforward.
European Fee Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis not too long ago argued, unequivocally, for the pursuit of the “the aggressor pays” precept. Much less in style, but in addition gaining extra traction, is the thought to make use of no less than a part of the Russian belongings frozen by Western authorities — round $600 billion in whole — for reconstruction.
For the reason that monumental devastation that Ukraine and its persons are struggling is solely on account of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion, each these ideas outlined are on the appropriate aspect of historical past. However with respect to the confiscation of frozen Russian belongings — or a part of them — it’s crucial that the EU and different Western authorities execute this in a cautious and well-considered means.
Earlier than anything, authorities should make certain the confiscation isn’t carried out in a judicial vacuum. Given the blatant and intensely violent aggression the sovereign state of Ukraine and its individuals have been sufferer to, in addition to the conflict crimes dedicated by members of the Russian military underneath direct orders from the Kremlin, a robust judicial case justifying the confiscation of Russian belongings can and must be constructed — and it must be defended publicly.
The EU’s at all times on a excessive horse so far as the rule of legislation is worried. And on this particular case, it must be on that very same horse.
On the similar time, some leaders, together with Germany’s Minister of Finance Christian Lindner, are additionally arguing the confiscation must be restricted to the $300 billion-worth of belongings belonging to the Russian central financial institution, and that the large fortunes of the oligarchs must be left alone. I disagree.
A lot of the wealth amassed by Russian oligarchs originates from the Russian state. Catherine Belton’s excellently researched “Putin’s Folks” is one lengthy testimony to this unhappy reality. And accordingly, there’s completely no cause to exclude a priori giant elements of oligarchs’ large belongings from the confiscation train.
Nonetheless, although Ukraine and its individuals can at present depend on an enormous nicely of extremely deserved sympathy from the EU, Western authorities can’t, and shouldn’t, be blind to the fact of Ukrainian society both. In 2021, Ukraine was listed 122nd out of 180 nations in Transparency Worldwide’s Corruption Perceptions Index. The nation nonetheless has loads of work to do in combating corruption and bettering transparency.
For the sake of the Ukrainian individuals, Western authorities must be firmly respectful of Ukrainian sovereignty however equally cautious in the usage of confiscated cash.
Lastly, we should additionally begin to differentiate between Vladimir Putin and the kleptocratic mobsters round him, and the Russian individuals typically. The disastrous errors made on the peace convention of Versailles after World Battle I should be averted. As masterfully described by economist John Maynard Keynes, the Versailles Treaty imposed such harsh measures on the German inhabitants, it created the circumstances that made the rise of someone like Hitler and his Nazi gang virtually inevitable.
We should clarify to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his claim that “if the aggressor loses every little thing, then it deprives him of his motivation to start out a conflict” isn’t in accordance with what historical past teaches us.
To keep away from the rise of an much more anti-Western and anti-democratic despot than Putin, the West should begin taking the Russian inhabitants, who’ve additionally been betrayed and robbed by Putin and tricked by his lies, under consideration. And it should begin now.
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