[gailtate]

Crazy stuff. Not sure how easy it will be to punish this sort of war crime, but at least these looters should be readily identifiable. The whole Russian army is rotten.

I would phrase that as "The Russian army as a whole is rotten."  It may be that the general standard of conduct in that army is to tolerate or expect looting (and executions), but I'm not ready to say that every soldier is that way.  I hope that some Russians in the army have a morality that would recognize that as wrong.  I would anticipate that there has been looting to some extent by every army moving through its enemy's territory.

While I support economic sanctions as an attempt toward pursuing the cessation of a hot war, I could see Russians feeling that seizure of assets by the West as akin to, and perhaps greater than, the taking of an electric scooter.

"I hope that some Russians in the army have a morality that would recognize that as wrong..."

You cannot be serious. You actually think Russian grunts and the array of Syrian mercenaries and god-knows-who-all play by the Geneva Accords and the Marquess of Queensberry rules?! Their grandpas were the guys who caused Nazi SS troops to commit suicide rather than "surrender" to Zhukov's tender sensibilities. The Germans sprinted over broken glass barefooted to rush into American GI hands. My Purple Heart uncle witnessed it. The world has not changed one single whit. Somebody else on this board beat me to the old saw about the difference between American slaves and Russian slaves: American slaves dream of freedom, their Russian counterparts dream of being slave masters. W.T. Sherman was right of course but I still hope these grimy sadists suffer. Especially the apex predator atop the vodka/caviar food chain.

[gailtate]

Crazy stuff. Not sure how easy it will be to punish this sort of war crime, but at least these looters should be readily identifiable. The whole Russian army is rotten.

I would phrase that as "The Russian army as a whole is rotten."  It may be that the general standard of conduct in that army is to tolerate or expect looting (and executions), but I'm not ready to say that every soldier is that way.  I hope that some Russians in the army have a morality that would recognize that as wrong.  I would anticipate that there has been looting to some extent by every army moving through its enemy's territory.

While I support economic sanctions as an attempt toward pursuing the cessation of a hot war, I could see Russians feeling that seizure of assets by the West as akin to, and perhaps greater than, the taking of an electric scooter.

"I hope that some Russians in the army have a morality that would recognize that as wrong..."

You cannot be serious. You actually think Russian grunts and the array of Syrian mercenaries and god-knows-who-all play by the Geneva Accords and the Marquess of Queensberry rules?! Their grandpas were the guys who caused Nazi SS troops to commit suicide rather than "surrender" to Zhukov's tender sensibilities. The Germans sprinted over broken glass barefooted to rush into American GI hands. My Purple Heart uncle witnessed it. The world has not changed one single whit. Somebody else on this board beat me to the old saw about the difference between American slaves and Russian slaves: American slaves dream of freedom, their Russian counterparts dream of being slave masters. W.T. Sherman was right of course but I still hope these grimy sadists suffer. Especially the apex predator atop the vodka/caviar food chain.