“Confiscation” war: lawyer told how the West will “dekulakize” Russian oligarchs

With the start of the sanctions war against Russia, the West has lost one of its main attractions for the countries of the global periphery: confidence in the inviolability of private property and financial assets. Dmitry Gololobov, a Russian lawyer living in London and a former witness in the YUKOS case, writes about this in his blog.

“Every now and then messages appear on the Internet about the need to “hunt down Russian corrupt officials” and “inform on them in order to confiscate assets.” And they are trying to track and knock, although the “authorized bodies” in the West have known everything about everyone for a long time. But they just knock for fun. The topic of sanctions is receiving serious “qualitative” development - the Americans, and along with them the Canadians, are trying to pass laws that would make it possible to confiscate already “frozen” Russian assets (primarily, of course, the palaces and yachts of the oligarchs), and direct part of the money received to assistance to Ukraine,” he writes.

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Gololobov notes that the current sanctions war violates the practice established in Europe and Britain, according to which property rights are protected by Art. 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention, which states that “Every natural or legal person has the right to respect for his property. No one may be deprived of his property except in the interests of society and under the conditions provided for by law and the general principles of international law.”

At the same time, the lawyer notes that preventive sanctions are fraught with serious problems in the courts for Western governments.

“To just take and “expropriate” oligarchic and other “Russian” assets will not work - all this is fraught with many high-profile lawsuits and it is by no means a fact that the European authorities will win all of them, and the loss will be very, very painful. In any case, these are definitely years. How will Europe solve this problem? There is no clear answer yet, although individual governments may try to introduce some of their own “confiscation” laws, but this does not mean that they will be invulnerable to the European Court,” says Dmitry Gololobov.

In the case of the United States, according to the lawyer, there are much fewer such problems.

“They do not have a European convention and court, there is no external “control” over the actions of American courts and legislators, and they can bend the law, taking into account the need to “confront Putin’s aggressive Russia,” as they please. Even taking into account the principle of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that property rights cannot be deprived of property without “due process of law.”

Anyone who knows a little about American practice understands that “protecting national interests” is too big a sacred cow there. Therefore, they will first “freeze” it, then confiscate it, then sell it and give the money to Ukraine, and after lengthy and expensive trials, the courts will confirm everything,” writes the Russian lawyer.

According to the draft American “confiscation” law, the decision on the expropriation of assets in relation to each specific Russian businessman will be made out of court, further appeal to the court is possible, plus the creation of a crime that will cover the ownership of proceeds from corruption in Russia.

“The draft “confiscation” law has not yet passed through the Senate and the President, but few doubt that very, very soon it will be born and will be very actively applied. Even American pockets to help Ukraine are not bottomless,” the expert notes.

Dmitry Gololobov also notes the softness of the Russian government’s counter-sanction measures against Western residents.

“Russia has so far refused to confiscate and sell off Western assets, and the relevant State Duma committee has canceled the Crimean draft of a similar law. And indeed, it is stupid to unleash a confiscation war against the backdrop of a sanctions war. But if the United States starts it, then, without a doubt, Russia will show political will and adopt its “confiscation law,” the Russian lawyer is sure.

According to Dmitry Gololobov, Russia can confiscate and sell assets of companies and individuals from “unfriendly” countries worth $140 billion.