Or, to oversimplify it, if Russia decides that anyone can use McDonald's trademark, then maybe Gazprom's pipelines won't be Russian anymore.
We are in a weird spot where Russia is very much interested in economic relationships continuing more or less as is (exemplified by the conciliatory rhetoric from the Russian government, essentially they are saying "no hard feelings, return any time" to the departing companies) so will mostly respect property rights. OTOH the West sees financial and economic relationships as their main weapon in this war so most funky moves related to property rights will be initiated by the Western governments (e.g. many "sanctions" essentially are extrajudiciary property seizures).
Most Russian assets have been frozen, not seized. The German subsidiary made news for being an exception in that Germany took control of the subsidiary. But it’s still Gazprom’s property.
> That is my understanding. The property still belongs to the owners
IIRC, there are efforts being made to outright seize stuff like the yachts, sell them, and give the proceeds to Ukraine. I'm not completely up on the details, though. I think some criteria might be if the property is de-facto owned by the Russian state, or was acquired due to corrupt association with it.
Germany already took over control of Gazprom Germania, with tanks and pipelines within Germany. So that isn't much of a threat.
https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/Elektrizitaet... (PDF, German language)
“We are already working with our international partners to freeze and seize properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs worldwide,” said Attorney General Garland. “We will continue to work together to take all appropriate actions against those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue its unjust war against Ukraine.”
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-departments-justice-and-tr...
Reward program: https://home.treasury.gov/about/offices/terrorism-and-financ...
> The outcome is nothing need be proven, the assertion is sufficient...
There seem to be inconsistent messages in this thread. Do we need to prove anything to take stuff off the Russians or don't we?
Isn't it like it has always been in human history? You don't need to prove anything if your goal is total destruction of your enemy and everything associated with them. Just do what you think will harm them the most. Until the total destruction of one or another side. Or the whole humanity.
The only thing I don't understand here is why some people act surprised when that same enemy fight back using the same or similar means? Like seizing property and assets of companies, citizens, and administration of one state, and then complaining that intellectual property of your administration, company, or citizens might not be respected in that same country?
Such as the headline "Russia ‘steals’ 150 planes leased from foreign owners"?[0]
[0] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/23/russia-steal...
Russia makes most of its money from primary sector exports (grains, oil, gas, minerals, ...), and that's basically the only thing they care about. They are building new markets in Asia for that, in countries like China that definitely don't give a damn about Burger King's IP or whatever. They know that unless Putin is deposed tomorrow and Russia demilitarises the Europeans will switch to LNG and North African natural gas anyway, they are just playing ball with what they have.
Also, those properties in the West would probably get confiscated or sequestered very soon anyway.
Russia (or more precisely Putin) obviously gives a sh* about international treaties. The invasion in Ukraine breaches more than just one such treaty.
So why would they care about intellectual property?