Without opining on the correctness of referring to this kind of confiscation from one state by another as stealing: it's an obvious mistake to treat taking money out of their bank accounts as a more serious offense than making war on them, literally taking their lives.
This is way more damaging to the institutions of Europe than the war in Ukraine. Countries usually owe each other money, now everyone will think twice before saving assets in Europe.
Oh yes - "Risky to invest in Europe, it'll scupper our future plans to break a peace treaty and violate international law by invading one of their countries".
For now the EU has only frozen the bulk of Russian assets. The cases where assets or money has been seized are in cases such as sanctions violations. EU countries are unlikely to seize anything unless they have a solid legal justification.
It was already stolen money. Stolen from the Russian people, by crooks who support a war criminal in his imperialist massacres (the people whose assets are being frozen weren't selected randomly). These oligarchs forfeited their wealth by supporting the aggressor and threatening the countries where they stashed their loot. There is a crystal-clear justification for locking these assets for the trillions Russia will have to pay in reparations.
