IT’S EASY to call the U.S. a government a den of thieves if you’re a middle-middle to upper class American who pays confiscatory income taxes to the loathed and corrupt Internal Revenue Service. It is if you’re a rich Russian, too.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged yet more money to the corrupt government of Ukraine, consisting of $1 billion in military and other financial aid. To slap Russian Vladimir Putin in the face and rub salt into the wound, Blinken said that included in the package is $5.4 million in seized assets which appear to belong to a Russian oligarch. Blinken has also apparently directed that sum be earmarked for Ukraine’s veterans’ services.
In a characteristically arrogant statement, Blinken declared, “Those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it.” But being America’s top diplomat, it is disconcerting for him affirmatively nix peace talks that Beijing has tried to broker. Blinken is okay with the status quo given he has not only ruled out a negotiated settlement, but a possible ceasefire as well. This, despite the fact the world has known Ukraine was unprepared for a ‘counteroffensive’ that was built up in newsrooms around the world. The hallowed New York Times reported recently that U.S. officials are disappointed Kiev has become so “casualty averse.”
The seized Russian funds that have apparently already been transferred to Ukraine are reported to belong to an oligarch named Konstantin Malofeyev, who is a banking, telecommunications, and media tycoon. This is believed to be the case because Attorney General Merrick Garland boasted that $5.4 million in Malofeyev’s purloined assets had been turned over to the State Department to “remediate the harms of Russia’s unjust war.” He further bragged that “while this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine, it will not be the last.” Whether Garland was virtue-signaling or feeling very generous with money that is not his to give is not clear.
AFP said Malofeyev was “indicted in April 2022 for violating sanctions related to the 2014 Russian-backed secession war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and its takeover of Crimea.” The U.S. seized money Malofeyev held in a Texas bank. This ought to be adjudicated by a tribunal of proper jurisdiction lest the U.S. be guilty of larceny. Just being an indicted rich Russian isn’t sufficient for such a taking. (It’s sort of a variation on, IMO, unconstitutional but still allowed civil asset forfeiture.)
sua sponte 