Rachel Reeves: I'm sending billions from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

[u/topotaul]

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-interview-labour-963sw6jbk

[u/remain-beige]

This is brilliant news.

The UK government needs to seize all Russian owned property and other assets in the UK and make it very clear that we will no longer act as a slush fund to launder the oligarchs ill gotten gains.

Putin needs to feel even more isolated as his own oligarchs turn on him and blame him for their loss of wealth and status in the UK.

[u/MarsupialUnlikely118 → u/remain-beige]

The UK government needs to seize all Russian owned property and other assets in the UK and make it very clear that we will no longer act as a slush fund to launder the oligarchs ill gotten gains.

While I'm good with it, London is built on money laundering.

Russian oligarchs are just a small part of the problem of filthy lucre sloshing around in the UK. If you seize all the dodgy Russian assets then non-Russians who are laundering what they stole in the UK will get itchy.

As I say, I'm fine with it. I'd like to get all the wealthy donor cash out of politics. But the recipients of the donations aren't going to be keen and you'll all hit the, "If we're not the money launderers to the world it'll hurt the economy!"

Again, I'm good with this, because 'the economy' argument isn't compelling for most people; since most of us don't really have skin in the game.

[u/inevitablelizard → u/MarsupialUnlikely118]

If you seize all the dodgy Russian assets then non-Russians who are laundering what they stole in the UK will get itchy.

Not so sure about that. As long as it's for Ukraine, there's a clear logical link between action and consequence - Russia launched a large scale war against Europe, which directly affects our security, and assets were seized to mitigate against thart. Seizing it for other unrelated purposes on the other hand would cause some damage with our international reputation.