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The senator said he was regularly asking the following question to Department of State officials: "Can you tell me one behavior that has changed from a sanction? You tell me one sanction you put on Russia that Russia has now said: ‘We're sorry about it, we should have never done that. And we're going to do exactly what you want us to, just tell us what to do and we'll do it.’ Or just tell me any kind of behavior that's been modified by China or by Russia, or by Iran. In fact, if you look at Iran it's sort of the opposite." "In fact, I would argue the sanctions don't work at all. The only sanctions that work are if you offer to repeal them, in fact. But what we tend to do is: we put more on, and more on, and more on," he continued.
"And, to my knowledge, I don't know any that were removed. In the Iran agreement there were some sanctions that were going to be removed and were removed, but with Russia and China we've been doing this for five years, some of these for 10 years with both countries. I'm not aware of any that we've removed," Paul added.
"But the thing is, there is another alternative and it's called diplomacy," he said, adding that Washington should rather engage diplomatically with these countries instead of imposing more and more sanctions.
He also criticized the US administration’s plans to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
"We claim we are going to take it. We might have the ability. We have amazing controls over the banking system. But at the same time if we take it: do you think Russia is just going to crumble?" the senator asked rhetorically.
He said that such measures will prompt Moscow to take retaliatory measures.
"So we'll take their sovereign wealth, and they'll take all the private wealth that’s over there. I don't think it gets us more towards a solution," Paul explained. "But once you do it, it's almost impossible to go backwards.".
The founder of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, became the first Russian billionaire to not only challenge European sanctions, but also demand compensation for assets frozen in Europe. As Vedomosti learned, Fridman offered Luxembourg, where the Alfa Group holding companies were registered, to reimburse him $15.8 billion out of court. In case of refusal, the billionaire is going to file a claim in international arbitration - and his chances of success are non-zero.
Ukraine’s allies plan to introduce sanctions against banks that help the Russian Federation. France and the Netherlands are pushing for EU sanctions against any bank in the world that helps the Russian military pay for weapons, goods, or technology. The proposal is being discussed as part of the 14th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, which will be presented in June. It is proposed that EU members would be prohibited from doing business with any financial institution that directly or indirectly helps Moscow obtain prohibited goods or dual-purpose technologies. Such a ban could become a powerful incentive for financial institutions in the Middle East, Turkey, and even China to prohibit the supply of dual-purpose goods to Russia
53 RUSSIA Country Report June 2024 www.intellinews.com