Comment: Russia can be made to pay reparations, starting now
By Robert Litan / Bloomberg Opinion
Billions of people around the world are watching helplessly as Russias invasion of Ukraine accelerates into its third week, continuing to kill more innocent people every day, while destroying infrastructure throughout the country and forcing millions of refugees into neighboring European countries.
There is one positive step that the U.S. and like-minded countries should begin developing immediately to ensure that Russia at least is held responsible for the cost of humanitarian assistance, reparations and eventual reconstruction: Tap Russian foreign exchange reserves that are held in central banks outside the country and that have been frozen by their governments.
According to the most recent data supplied by Russias central bank, as of June 30, 2021, Russias foreign currency reserves totaled $585 billion, though not all of this would be accessible to pay for damages. Thats because Russia holds a good portion of the total in gold at home (22 percent), a substantial amount of renminbi in China (14 percent), and some in international institutions (5 percent). Subtracting these amounts leaves about $350 billion in available reserves for distribution; mostly held by France (12 percent), Germany (10 percent), Japan (10 percent) and the U.S. (7 percent), with the rest scattered among many other countries.
In the past, reparations have been paid after hostilities ended by the aggressor country; that was Germany in the first two world wars. Now, the fact that many countries already have control over Russias holdings of foreign currency means that, in effect, reparations for the Ukrainian invasion have been pre-funded by Russia itself. This is an admittedly unique circumstance, but there is a basis in international law for enabling nations that hold these reserves to commit them to pay for damages.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-russia-can-be-made-to-pay-reparations-starting-now/
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Right now!!!
TeamProg
(5,787 posts)Igel
(35,191 posts)Oh, wait. Syria's basically Iran's puppet.
So let's just make Iran pay.
Except that Iran's Putin's friend.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)It's hard to understand why we're not already doing this.