The US Treasury freezes Russian officials assets?
I realize that our main beef with Russian support for Crimea succession, and the presumed intent of eventual Russian annexation of the region, is that this is in violation of International Law, as determined by the treaties to which Russia and the Ukraine committed when the Ukraine become independent of Russia in one of many such incidents following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
But to freeze assets of individuals, not for committing or supporting actual crimes against people, or violations of human rights, but for agitating or advocating, as an official of an independent political entity -- in the case the Russian Federation -- seems like itself a great breech of the common understanding of "Rule of Law that we are purportedly trying to uphold in the Ukraine.
"Rule of Law" is generally meant to refer, and is frequently criticized within the Left for its alleged neoliberal background, that government respects its limits to interfere with individual property and civil liberties, including free speech and political association.
But by taking action against the property of individuals because they happen to be politically active in a foreign country in a way that is contrary to the interests of the Obama administration's foreign policy in the Ukraine seems way out of hand. It is an egregious abuse of state power for political ends.
This would be different if there were clear human rights violations being perpetrated or instigated by the Russian officials in question, or even by the Russian government. But this is not, at least not yet, the case in the Ukraine. President Obama should be chastised for doing this and if allowed to get away with it, there is no power of the state which cannot ultimately be justified against mere political opponents.
In a liberal democracy, space for dissent and for contesting power needs to upheld first and foremost, and even in the international sphere, in which our political opponents (not even enemies) do not subscribe to this ideal of protecting dissent, the U.S really has to be the champion of allowing for political disagreement among allies and opponents. Freezing personal assets of political opponents removes spaces for non-violent dissent with the power of the U.S. president, and we, as Democrats, should be speaking out against this abuse of power by President Obama, for our own sake if not for that of Putin's friends.