{"id":76436,"date":"2024-03-18T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/?p=76436"},"modified":"2024-03-18T09:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T13:26:03","slug":"aaron-gasch-burnett-its-time-to-seize-russian-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/2024-03-18\/aaron-gasch-burnett-its-time-to-seize-russian-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Gasch Burnett: Want to be a real global leader, Canada? Start by seizing Russian assets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amidst embarrassing delays<\/a> to Canada\u2019s military equipment shipments to Ukraine, there is a bright light of Canadian leadership in support of Kyiv\u2019s fight against an invading Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada is currently one of only three countries\u2014alongside the U.S. and Switzerland\u2014to have drafted legislation to seize Russia\u2019s central bank reserves. Over $400 billion CAD<\/a> of these assets have been sitting in Western accounts since they were frozen two years ago. Since then, the Russians haven\u2019t been able to access them, but they also haven\u2019t been able to be used for anything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet even as Canada and other foreign countries confiscated the private assets<\/a> of Russian oligarchs, Russia\u2019s state assets have remained immune from such seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s changing under an amendment<\/a> to Canadian sanctions law, finally allowing the government to confiscate Russia\u2019s state assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yuliya Ziskina, a senior legal fellow for the pro-Ukraine non-profit Razom Advocacy, who was consulted with by Canadian Senators on the recent amendment to sanctions law, estimates that $25.5 billion CAD lie frozen in either Canadian accounts or those associated with Euroclear Bank in Belgium<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canada could take this money and give it to Ukraine for liberation or reconstruction. This would prove useful, given that Russia has inflicted more than $650 billion CAD<\/a> in damage on Ukraine so far and is unlikely to pay reparations for its crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when Western taxpayers are being asked to provide more support for Ukraine amidst the rising cost of living, it\u2019s also unconscionable to leave dirty Russian money on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow more than ever the world\u2019s democracies must work together to ensure Ukraine is victorious. And we must ensure the aggressor pays,\u201d says Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. \u201cCanada has long advocated for unlocking and using Russia\u2019s central bank assets to support Ukraine\u2019s fight against Putin\u2019s war machine and fund the long-term reconstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, it\u2019s not clear when the Trudeau government intends to actually use this law<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western government sources say G7 countries\u2014including Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., which are in favour of seizing Russian assets\u2014don\u2019t want to actually do it until all G7 countries agree. Freeland has been busy meeting with her allied counterparts in the background\u2014yet neither she nor Minister of Foreign Affairs M\u00e9lanie Joly have had much to say publicly about when Canada will actually use its world-leading law or whether they intend to use it to help convince allies to seize Russian assets within their own borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waiting isn\u2019t helping<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The problem with waiting for G7 agreement is that allies like Germany have needed to be consistently pressured and shamed before providing necessary support for Ukraine\u2014whether it was cancelling the Nordstream 2 pipeline just before the full-scale invasion, or finally sending Leopard 2 tanks<\/a> after months of dithering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As influential figures from Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats look to \u201cfreeze\u201d the conflict, allowing Russia to keep its territorial gains, over 50 experts penned an open letter<\/a> warning that Scholz\u2019s soft approach to Putin was putting all of Europe in danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France and Germany are also reluctant to seize Russian state assets, with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock ruling it out at a recent EU summit, arguing it would violate international law.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Canada really wants to help Ukraine win, it needs to be willing to make allied laggards look bad. Waiting for G7 agreement before acting will simply allow reluctant European governments to keep putting off decisions to seize Russian assets. Someone has to be bold enough to act first. This time, it needs to be us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, given the sorry state of our military equipment, Canadian legislative leadership around assets offers us the best possible shot at helping Ukraine win right now. Canada is also a country that still enjoys an excellent reputation among both European elites and the European public. Given the U.S.\u2019s current reputation in Europe, Europeans are sometimes inclined to dismiss American policy initiatives. Canada\u2019s reputation as a moral leader makes it more difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, waiting is a luxury we don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWaiting to make this move risks financially starving Ukraine and risks its ultimate defeat,\u201d says Ziskina. \u201cUkraine cannot afford to wait. Its survival is at risk.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to deliver his state-of-the-nation address in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Alexander Zemlianichenko\/AP Photo. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But real Canadian leadership will require diplomatic capital. For that, Canada\u2019s talented diplomats need the political greenlight from the very top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe overall direction on this should be coming from [ministers] Freeland and Joly. But neither of them have been very outspoken on Ukraine lately,\u201d says Chris Alexander, Canada\u2019s former minister of citizenship and immigration. He\u2019s also served as a Conservative MP and minister counsellor at the Canadian embassy in Moscow. \u201cDiplomats need a clear expression of political will\u2014a clear statement of purpose (not necessarily public) that says: \u2018We are going to get this done,\u2019 then is willing to expend political effort to break logjams when they occur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 My conversations with Canadian diplomats also leave me concerned that Canadian leaders have yet to give an explicit green light to push allied countries to seize Russian assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than two-thirds of Russia\u2019s frozen central bank reserves sit in Europe. If the Canadian government only intends to seize the Russian assets in its own jurisdiction, without following it up with a diplomatic strategy for convincing our allies to do the same, we will miss a significant opportunity to help Ukraine and demonstrate the global leadership<\/a> we keep telling ourselves we still have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s time to break with the comfortable habit we have of being a follower. Canada needs to come out of G7 backrooms and make the asset seizure case boldly\u2014in public, and lead by example by going first. We need to not be afraid to lead by acting first. Ukraine\u2014and history\u2014would thank us for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada leads the world with legislation to seize Russia\u2019s central bank reserves to support Ukraine. Politically and diplomatically though, it\u2019s wasting a good chance to lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2778,"featured_media":76445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","_custom_css":"","_custom_scss":""},"categories":[55,174,12,29],"tags":[],"hub_format":[2],"thefutureofnews":[],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76436"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76591,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76436\/revisions\/76591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76436"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_format?post=76436"},{"taxonomy":"thefutureofnews","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehub.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thefutureofnews?post=76436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}