[sudden_dystopia]

Legally, you can’t just invade another country but that didn’t stop Russia and it has never stopped the US. Do you think Russia is going to care about the legality of debts they owe to a system that is sanctioning them? What more can we penalize them with if they don’t pay, nukes? They are literally removing themselves from the system the west has set up and are creating a new one with other BRIC nations to try to compete.

[rmind]

Russia won't but the West will. If you have a clear cut case of contract breach, then it's pretty straightforward to confiscate the property via courts and so on. The sanctions, on the other hand, are more complex, they might involve freezes (even if permanent, it's not confiscation), have different extent, not all countries subscribe to them, etc. The world is complex.

[valuearb]

The west can't confiscate anything within Russia, and has already confiscated most of their foriegn currency assets.

The world isn't that complex. Putin needs these pipelines, they offer leverage when Europe runs low on gas.