Scorched earth. Russia should be punished with a ruble for the crime of aggression

Exclusive. The speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko, suggested that the residents of the annexed regions of Ukraine should suffer for 5-10 years.

Illustrative photo

"In five, maximum 10 years, these will be industrially developed agriculturally developed self-sufficient regions that will be part of our united Russia," she said. According to her, the government of the Russian Federation has a clear and understandable plan for the priority of restoration of housing, engineering infrastructure, and social facilities in the new territories.

The same "clear and understandable plan" as in 2014.

During Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Feodosia on May 23, 2016, a pensioner approached him and said that she had a pension of 8 thousand. rubles, and asked: "You said there will be an indexation, where is it in Crimea, this indexation?" What is 8 thousand? This is a pittance. Feet rub against us here! It is impossible to live on a pension, the prices are crazy." To which Medvedev replied to her: "There is no [indexation] anywhere, we didn't accept it at all, there's just no money now. We will find money, we will make an indexation. You stay here, I wish you all the best, good mood and health!"

Families in the annexed Crimea became some of the poorest in Russia. In particular, Sevastopol took the 76th place in the ranking of regions by the level of well-being of families, analysts of the RIA-Rating agency report. In an hour, the city fell in the rating by 11 positions: in 2022, Sevastopol took 65th place, and in 2021 - 67th.

Donbass as a region ceases to exist. The Russian army uses "scorched earth" tactics.

Mariupol is chosen as a showcase, and when propaganda shows reports that the Russian Federation is supposedly restoring Donbass, they show reports from Mariupol, while the rest of the city is abandoned. At the same time, not everything is so clear-cut with the "showcase". In particular, the occupiers are building housing on the site of demolished houses in the city center, on the bones of Mariupol residents, on the mass graves that have become many houses, and sell apartments there for people who come from Russia, because the locals have no money. Pure looting - with a hint of ethnic cleansing.

Except for Mariupol, absolutely everything has been abandoned. Minister of Construction and Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation Irek Faizullin openly stated that not all cities should be restored. "It is possible that we may not restore any cities in these conditions. Popasnaya is a city of hundreds of thousands, there is nothing left there, seven people live there, they do not want to leave their individual housing. We are not doing anything there yet," he said at a meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation. The minister suggested that even by 2030, the restoration work will not be fully completed. Russia came, wiped the city off the face of the earth, killed the population or drove it out, and then says: "Look, there are no people. Why restore?" No population - no problems.

At the same time, 28% of Russians consider the support provided to the occupied territories to be excessive, 53% are convinced that the assistance is provided in a sufficient amount, and only 7% are convinced that it is not enough, according to the published experts of the TSP "Platforma" and the Center for Socio-Political Studies and Information Technologies of the Russian State University given Russians are unhappy that investments in captured regions can reduce the level of support for traditional territories.

Only Ukrainians are interested in the restoration of Ukrainian territories. Russia caused colossal material damage to Ukraine, because only in the first hour of the full-scale invasion, the amount of damage reached approximately $411 billion, and all losses since 2014 may amount to about $2 trillion. However, the Kremlin refuses to compensate the losses on its own, does not accept responsibility for the aggression and continues to destroy the economy and infrastructure of Ukraine.

At least $300 billion of Russian assets were seized around the world after the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, due to Western sanctions, Russia has lost access to almost half of its gold and currency reserves — about $300 billion. In addition, the EU has also frozen more than €24 billion in assets belonging to sanctioned Russians and Russian companies.

The transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine is a fair decision. Unfortunately, the EU cites the lack of a legal mechanism regulating the transfer of seized assets, but the US has set a precedent for other countries. At the beginning of September, it was decided to transfer the arrested assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. We are talking about a small amount of $5,4 million, which was confiscated through the court from Konstantin Malofeev, but in the future we should expect similar decisions in relation to other Russian oligarchs and not only in the USA. The largest sums are in the EU countries, where the seized reserves of the Central Bank of Russia are kept.

The USA and the EU are studying what legal powers are necessary to use these assets for Ukraine, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on October 5. "My vision is that you broke it - you paid for it. And therefore the Russians, who broke it, must pay for it," he said. If Russia is allowed to do what it is doing with Ukraine, without punishment, it will send a signal to the whole world to the countries that intend to start aggression that they can get away with it.

Vera Perovskaya