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Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
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Feb 24 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
In addition to unleashing the full barrage of sanctions and seizing oligarchic assets, now begin:

—Fast-tracking organization (and potential membership) between NATO and Sweden/Finland

—Fast-track pro-transparency regulations in real estate, private investments, and art market
—Fast-tracking new anti-money laundering regulations on lawyers and law firms

—Fast-tracking legislation barring former officials from working for autocracies

—Significant increase in law enforcement asset tracing and seizure programs
This chart is from my book, illustrating how Russian (and other) oligarchs launder their wealth in the West.

Clamp down on every one of these industries, across the board. Force transparency. End anonymity. And consider sanctioning those Westerners who refuse to comply.
Sanctions are fine, and welcome. Asset seizure is great, and overdue.

But until these Western industries—real estate and private equity, art markets and auction houses, anonymous trusts and shell companies—are cleaned up, sanctions are but a Band-Aid.

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More from @cjcmichel

Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 22
It’s time to see Putin’s Russia for what it’s long been: a European empire that never fully decolonized—and dedicated to revanchism, no matter the cost.

My latest for @newrepublic: newrepublic.com/article/165448…
One thing is clear:

Putin’s monomania about controlling Ukraine stems mainly from pure, unadulterated neo-imperialism—and a desire to reclaim territories the dictator believes belong to Moscow.
Watching this return to outright empire is jarring. (European imperial colonization was supposed to be behind us!)

But there was always one European empire that never fully decolonized—never even came close to it: Russia.

Hence, the disaster now looming for Europe.
Read 9 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 22
Finally reading through Hirsch’s “Empire of Nations,” on the creation of Soviet republics, and one thing is clear: the Bolsheviks had absolutely no idea what they were doing, and looked for any excuse to simply continue as much of tsarist-era colonization as possible. Image
Pre-1917, the Bolsheviks were talking all about the exploitative nature of colonization.

And then they came to power—and realized how maintaining Moscow’s setter-colonial empire would be to their benefit. Image
“Between 1919 and 1921, the Bolsheviks used military force, intrigue, and diplomatic measures to… exert control over the newly independent states of the former Russian empire…. In many regions, though, the Bolsheviks had no indigenous support whatsoever.” Image
Read 4 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 21
Putin’s been saying this for years—and using it as an excuse for aggression for just as long.
This is neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism in broad daylight.

This is what happens when a country doesn’t fully decolonize, and ends up with a revanchist dictator.
This is why any “settlement” on NATO and Ukraine was, at best, just a temporary pause.

This is a dictator, who thinks of himself as some figure of historic import, motivated by conspiracy and revanchism. And one willing to destroy his neighbors out of pure ego and chauvinism.
Read 7 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 20
Nine years ago, I enrolled in the Master’s program in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe Studies from Columbia’s @HarrimanInst.

At the time, I remember conversations about whether we should even have a Russia studies program. (Thankfully, we still do!)
One of the best courses there was called “Ukrainian Foreign Policy.” There were three of us total (plus @Argemino!) in the fall of 2013.

Each week, we met to dissect the latest on Yanukovych’s government, Orange Revolution legacies, the potential EU Association Agreement, etc.
And each week, things got slowly less hopeful. Yanukovych started to stall. The potential for signing the Association Agreement slowly got further and further away.

It was a bit like watching a slow-motion car crash, week in, week out.
Read 5 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 17
Way too many people still think the latest Russia crisis is only (or even primarily) about Ukraine potentially joining NATO.
Does Ukrainian membership in NATO play a role in Russia’s security posture/threats of invasion? Sure. Is it the primary motivator? Hardly—otherwise a simple question of Ukrainian security neutrality would abnegate the bulk of the current/forthcoming crisis.
This remains the best thread on why the Kremlin’s designs—colonialist, revanchist, geo-economic—on Ukraine go far, far beyond NATO membership.

And why the solution of a “neutral Ukraine” is somewhere between myopic and a dangerous canard.

Read 7 tweets
Casey Michel 🇰🇿 Profile picture
Feb 16
The time has come: We have to pass legislation barring former Western politicians from working with authoritarian regimes, and their related proxies.

Me and @BLSchmitt in @ForeignPolicy: foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/15/ger…
Gerhard Schröder is arguably Putin’s greatest lobbyist. But he’s no longer unique.

Former British and French PMs, Polish presidents, US senators, an entire range of Austrian leaders—all have raced to become shills for kleptocrats after leaving office.

foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/15/ger…
The first step: a joint Western statement announcing that the practice of former officials working for authoritarian or kleptocratic regimes or their related proxies after leaving office must end.

Announce—publicly and jointly—that the norms have changed. Image
Read 4 tweets

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