It has now become a standard practice of the United States: that of robbing its enemies.

As you may recall, during the 2003 war against Iraq, the reserves of its National Bank disappeared without a trace. Washington accused vanquished president Saddam Hussein of having robbed his own bank, but never came up with the booty.

Then came the looting of the Libyan Central Bank in 2011. 150 billion dollars vanished. It was dubbed the heist of the century.

More recently, the funds of the Venezuelan Central Bank frozen abroad, including the gold reserves deposited in the Bank of England, were made available to a CIA agent, the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó.

Today, in light of these precedents, it should be considered quite normal for Denis Kudin, No. 2 of Ukraine’s sovereign wealth fund and Deputy Economy Minister – to demand that Russian assets “frozen” in the West should be handed over to Kiev. ‎