The US Senate approved a bill allowing the confiscation of Russian assets for the sake of Ukraine
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the confiscation of Russian assets for aid to Ukraine and “other purposes.” About this with reference to the documents of the authority reports Vedomosti newspaper.
20 out of 21 members of the relevant committee voted in support of the document allowing the withdrawal of Russian money. According to committee chairman Ben Cardin, the bill will create conditions for the first time to confiscate funds from a country with which the United States is not at war. Moreover, the document, if adopted, will allow the confiscation and use of only 5 billion dollars out of 300 billion frozen by Western countries – most of the assets are blocked in Europe.
According to the director of the Russian International Affairs Council, Ivan Timofeev, at the beginning of 2024, only Canada has a mechanism for confiscating Russian assets. According to the law, the same tool in the United States is allowed to be used only in relation to assets involved in criminal cases.
“We are talking about very large assets, caution is logical and understandable, as well as fear of Russia’s reaction,” added Artem Sokolov, a researcher at the Center for European Studies at MGIMO. In his opinion, the benefit that the EU will receive from confiscation is significant only in the short term, while in the medium and long term it may raise questions about the reliability of the European market for large players like India, China and the Arab states.
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The administration of US President Joe Biden “welcomed in principle” the passage of a bill to confiscate $300 billion in Russian funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine. A corresponding note was sent to the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate. According to journalists, the administration of the American leader supported this decision against the backdrop of Washington's difficulties in providing financial assistance to Kyiv.
As Politico newspaper reported, a number of EU countries are concerned about the consequences of using frozen Russian assets.
We are talking primarily about the threat of retaliatory measures that Russia may take and the legal consequences of such a decision. Sources call the most likely outcome in which the European Union will agree only on taxation of profits from Russian assets in order to send funds to support Ukraine.
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