Russia simply kept any airliners it had leased, effectively stealing them from the West
you mean like the 300 billion dollars the US effectively stole from Russia?
300 billion is the worldwide total, not the US total.
So my point in contrasting those two situation is that the vast majority of that money is still sitting there, frozen, and actually โstealingโ it is still considered a big deal 2 years in, with a lot of debate about when and how to go about it through legal means and whether to do it at all. Whereas with the planes, it was just right away โyoink theyโre ours now.โ
One of my other interlocutors said, more or less, that of course they canโt take the sanctions money completely, because it would be such a blatant theft that no one would ever trust the West again. Which, I donโt think thatโs completely a wrong take on it, but thenโฆ what about the planes? How does that fit into that? That was my point.
The West stole 300 billion dollars and imposed illegal โsanctionsโ, after which Russia decided not to return a few planes; quite a difference in scale. And yes, โfreezingโ money is still theft โ if you steal something and refuse to return it, โI promise I wonโt do anything with itโ is not a valid excuse
So if someone else breaks the law first (sanctions), itโs permissible to ignore the law in your dealings with them going forward (keeping the planes). Yes?
(Edit: I donโt agree with that statement in general; Iโm asking whether you agree with that statement, because it sounds like thatโs what youโre saying.)
