We are at war last time I checked. Attacks are below a threshold for response (sabotage, inciting domestic terrorism). This is a similar, non-conventional and adequate response.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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Russia has committed dozens of serious acts of war against Europe, but no one dare touch the capital. /S
For self described nationalists ECR politicians all sound like a bunch of russiaboos.
Is the Belgium prime minister aware of reality?
Oh he is. You don't go so easily against the system. Remember the whole capitalism works with trust. You take trust away and in few years you have serious problems.
While I personally think that we should just give everything seized from Russia to Ukraine I understand the problem at hand. There needs to be quite a bit of global discussion and agreements on things like this. Global agreemeent to seize whatever you can from a country which invades another one seems like a no brainer, but that blade cuts both ways. With Russia the global effect is pretty minuscle (I think) as most of the global west is already out of there, but if the same situation was with China and Taiwan it's a whole different matter as practically all the western investments in there would just vanish overnight. And should China just decide to stop all exports it would be pretty catastrophic to western wold, military included. And it's pretty much the same picture with USA vs EU, should USA really end up in a dictatorship.
But after that, if EU just decides to seize all Russian assets in order to help Ukraine I would be that it would have pretty much global acceptance behind.
Global acceptance is one thing, investor acceptance is another. Rich people and investors care about certainty and security, not about righteousness and Countries.
Russia is on BRICS, so it is not that easy. They will push other countries to cut ties or make sanctions to EU (China will not like it for sure), and not to think about the energy retaliation (we gonna be back in 2022, and Europe is not ready for that now, especially after what is happening with the USA). Also you do not know what USA will do, Trump is unpredictable.
Not talking about the lawsuits that will fall after either. I mean ok you do it to Russia, but after would you do it to every country that invades? Would you do to every country that invades a European country? It is one time decision? Based on what laws?
I would like too that we just take their money and use them against them, but the backfire will be so big that will hurt both us and Ukraine in the long term.
There's a pretty massive caveat here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/putin-seizes-western-assets-in-russia-a-list-of-major-companies-affected/ar-BB1mM1pj
Russia started doing this a long time ago.
Yeah but Russia took the backfire and they are more independent than EU. They don't depend much from other countries. Also they don't care for international laws (they invaded Ukraine), EU is different, and now the support from USA is vanished. It is too risky, considering the escalation and the long-term impact on Europe's relations with both Russia and the global community.
Investors will adapt if the global agreements are clear. But that's a pretty damn big "if". Nato countries (currently without US) might build up something which works for them, but that still leaves roughly a half of the globe out of the equation. UN is not even close having enough leverage to make that happen, even if Hague would technically be the place where this kind of decisions would naturally fall into.
And the situation we have right now with global west (mainly EU, USA, Canada), global east (China, India and some of the Russia) and global south (BRICS) is way too unstable and scattered to make any global "best out of 3" vote impossible (and I obviously oversimplified the situation).
Maybe we need to reach out to some extraterrestial court to decide about this...
Capitalism “works” 😂😭
ask him about his "war on drugs" in Antwerp...
You mean that train stop between Amsterdam and Brussels?
exactly!
Versus Russian missiles 'accidentally' causing death and destruction in Poland near its border with Ukraine?
Politically, De Wever [The Belgian PM] has described himself as a conservative and a Flemish nationalist.[47] He is an avowed admirer of Edmund Burke and his political philosophy, and has described British conservative writer and social critic Theodore Dalrymple, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Austrian economist Friedrich Hayekas influences.
To these types the sacrity of private property and abstract finances is more important than real people’s survival and rights to self determination.
He is an avowed admirer of Edmund Burke and his political philosophy
Fun fact: Edmund Burke is a monarchist who created conservatism as a framework within which an aristocracy can still exist under democracy.
so? we are at war
Common economic liberal take. Anything that endangers their "natural rights" to property is an evil action.
Even if so, it was Russia that started that war. So its an act of defence.
Considering the shadow fleet, attempted assassinations, and assorted sabotage Russia has committed against the EU, I think a formal declaration of war would be warranted. The longer that Putin and Russia is allowed to live, the more likely that the US and Russia would spit roast Europe.
It is best to kill Russia before the United States formally declares war against the EU.
Not the financial markets! Oh please, please don't spook them!
who da fock is this twat?
Oh no.
Anyway.
I don't vote for this guy's party, but he does put his heart into it. He's always the pessimistic kind, rather always wants to play it safe.
His promise during elections was to lower the spending of the government, so that our debt would lower.
But as we all need to happen, he's okay with major investments in defense.
The EU gave the green light.
He’s an ostrich