NewsSociety

White House backs bill to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine ‘in principle’ – Bloomberg

The White House National Security Council is “in principle” backing a bill that would confiscate frozen Russian assets in the US and reallocate them to fund Ukraine’s war effort, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday citing an NSC memo from November.

“The bill would provide the authority needed for the executive branch to seize Russian sovereign assets for the benefit of Ukraine,” the memo said.

The US has frozen Russian assets worth around $300 billion (€273 billion), Bloomberg reported, adding that US President Joe Biden is believed to have endorsed the idea of confiscating Russian assets after Republicans blocked more than $60 billion (€54.6 billion) in aid to Ukraine.

The Biden administration intends to coordinate the confiscation of Russian funds with other members of the G7, Bloomberg reported, estimating that frozen Russian assets in Europe total around €182 billion.

A senior White House official who spoke to Bloomberg stressed that the confiscation of Russian assets and their reallocation to Ukraine, would essentially force Russia to pay war reparations for the damage done to Ukraine. The World Bank estimates the cost of reconstruction in Ukraine to total at least €374 billion.

Share
More on the topic
Article image
OpinionsPolitics
The West must face reality in Ukraine
While Putin is prepared to throw everything he has at this war, Ukraine’s Western backers are losing their resolve
Topics
Society
More news
Moscow resident fined for chanting outside train station that Ukraine’s military is ‘fucking Russia’
Head of Russian children’s hospice foundation detained for spreading ’false information’ about military
Russian court extends house arrest of Novaya Gazeta journalist, who says he was rebuked for even answering door to police
Putin denies reports of impending mobilisation and vows response to Zelensky's airspace plan
Putin planned to meet with CIA director but decided against it, independent Russian outlet reports
Russian veteran tells schoolchildren to study the Kalashnikov rifle ‘so that the whole world speaks Russian’
Readers' choice
Most popular articles from the last two weeks
Interactive map: Attacks on Russian territory, updated in real time
Data
Interactive map: Attacks on Russian territory, updated in real time
As Ukraine fights back, the war has spread to at least 60 Russian regions
Alesya Sokolova
Ksenia Storozheva
‘I wanted to open the coffin and make sure it was really him’
Stories
‘I wanted to open the coffin and make sure it was really him’
How mix-ups forced Russian soldiers' mothers to bury their sons twice
Lyalya Bulanova
Dasha Ivanova
‘I’ll baptise you with eight years in prison’
Opinions
‘I’ll baptise you with eight years in prison’
Inside Russia’s crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses, nearly a decade after it began
Lera Furman