The Real Reason the EU Just Stopped the $105B Seizure of Russian Assets | Alexander Leo Smith

#PropertyRights #Dedollarization #Russia
#Russia #Europe #Sanctions
I was in Brussels three weeks ago for a closed-door meeting with European finance officials. One senior official said words that made my blood run cold: "We thought freezing their assets would bring them to their knees. Instead, we have created a monster we cannot control."
He was right. Because what Europe did with $105 billion in Russian assets has triggered a chain reaction that will reshape global finance—and almost nobody understands what's really happening.
In this video, we expose how the EU's May 2024 decision to seize interest earnings from frozen Russian reserves triggered Russia's surgical mirror retaliation—targeting $105 billion in European corporate assets including Volkswagen ($3.5B), Raiffeisen Bank ($2.8B), and dozens more. From the death of property rights to the acceleration of de-dollarization, we break down why this might be the greatest strategic blunder in financial history.
In this video, we uncover:

The $105B Seizure: How the EU's May 2024 decision to confiscate Russian asset interest earnings—$3B annually for Ukraine—crossed a line that can never be uncrossed and broke the sacred principle of property rights.
The Mirror Retaliation: Why Russia's decree within 48 hours to seize equivalent European corporate holdings ($200B+ exposure) is strategic genius—exploiting divisions, rewarding hesitant countries, punishing aggressive ones.
The Corporate Panic: How Volkswagen, Raiffeisen, Danone, Shell, and BP are now screaming at their governments—caught in the crossfire of a financial war they never chose.
The Global Precedent: Why every central bank from Asia to Latin America is now asking "if they did it to Russia, could they do it to us?"—and quietly diversifying away from Western assets.

The headlines say Europe stood firm. The reality is Europe sacrificed the credibility of its entire financial system for $3B/year that won't change the war's outcome. Watch to understand the long-term cost.
#Geopolitics #AssetSeizure #Russia #EU #FinancialWarfare #Sanctions #PropertyRights #Dedollarization #CentralBanks #StrategicBlunder