Legal opportunity for Biden: will the US be able to transfer Russian assets to Ukraine

The United States is preparing a legal framework for the use of frozen Russian funds / Collage 24 Channel

The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a bill to transfer Russian assets frozen in the United States to Ukraine. At the same time, it is not yet clear how this initiative will work in practice and whether Western countries will take the risk.

Political scientist Andrei Vigirinsky told Channel 24 about this. He doubts that the bill Congress will consider will significantly change the current policy on frozen aggressor property.

What is the solution

The idea behind the bill is to ensure that the assets of Russian oligarchs and government agencies have the legal status of being confiscated. Once this law is passed and passed, Biden will have the ability to confiscate these assets.

“However, this does not mean that the American president will necessarily take advantage of this decision. As the lend-lease law has shown (the opportunity to rent US equipment for Ukraine – Channel 24), legal permission for some action does not always lead to consequences,” Vigirinsky warned.

International context

Earlier, a similar issue was discussed by the G7 countries. Their common position is that the frozen funds will not be returned to Moscow until it compensates Ukraine for the damage caused.

“In fact, this decision created a framework that indicates that, as such, confiscation of Russian property will not occur, and it will continue to remain frozen. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that Ukraine will soon receive $300 billion,” the political scientist noted.

There are indeed mechanisms in the world to confiscate the assets of Russian individuals who tried to circumvent sanctions. However, the confiscation of the sovereign money of the Russian Central Bank is much more difficult to imagine, because there have been no such precedents in modern history.

“If confiscation of Russian assets does occur, it could discourage investors from undemocratic countries like Saudi Arabia from Europe. It would be a sign that Europe is not a safe place for such investments, which could lead to Arabian money being pulled out of it and subsequently redirected to the East “, Vigirinsky suggested.

Given this, providing all of Russia's billions to Ukraine in the short term is unlikely.

Andrey Vigirinsky on the possibility of confiscation of Russian assets: watch the video

Sanctions against Russia: latest news

• The European Union has been preparing the 12th package of sanctions against the aggressor country for several months now. The Russian diamond mining industry will be subject to restrictions. The purpose of the new restrictions is to reduce the income of Russian industry so that the Kremlin does not have anything to finance the war.
• At the same time, the UK introduced sanctions against companies that helped Russia circumvent restrictions in the oil and gold mining industries. At the same time, 124 British companies recently admitted that they circumvented the ban on working in Russia.
• Also recently, the United States introduced new sanctions against the aggressor in cooperation with Ukraine, limiting the activities of 30 individuals and 200 legal entities, which helped Russia wage war against Ukraine.