Hans Braunfisch

To free market fans, of which I consider myself, "capital controls" is something of a four-letter word. They can be convoluted, complicated, and scary to international and domestic investors alike. Even when central banks and governments impose them for legitimate reasons, it is not just the bureaucratic hoops you need to jump through that stoke fear, but the reminder that investors' positions are at the whim of governmental entities. In Ukraine's case, however, capital controls were both a so

I have had the same conversation about investing in Ukraine over 50 times since 2022, and the excuse keeps evolving into every possible variation. Four years ago, the reason not to invest in Ukraine was the war. Two years ago, it was the war plus worries about Western support. But then, Ukrainian defense tech did something inconvenient for all these excuses — it scaled to levels few could have predicted. Those who don't follow the space are shocked by how vibrant Ukraine's startup market has b