Confiscation of Russian assets: US Senate Committee approves law
25 January 2024 10:06
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a bill aimed at confiscating Russian assets and transferring them to Ukraine for the country’s rehabilitation, Reuters reports 
with reference to Reuters.
The initiative, the Restoring Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians (REPO) Act, was approved by 20 committee members.
This bill, if passed by the Senate and House of Representatives and signed by US President Joe Biden, could for the first time in history allow the United States to confiscate the assets of a foreign central bank that is not at war with the country.
Ben Cardin, a Democratic senator and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed a positive attitude towards the bill, noting that it has strong support from both Democrats and Republicans in both chambers, as well as from the Biden administration.
According to the information, the bill was opposed by Republican Rand Paul, who spoke against it in the committee.
It is also reported that a similar bill was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with a majority of votes from both parties. Cardin hopes that the Senate, with a Democratic majority, and the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, will be able to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the bill.
It is noted that in 2022, the EU, the US, Japan, and Canada froze approximately $300 billion of the Russian central bank’s assets. Of these, only $5-6 billion are in the United States, most are in Europe, with a significant portion in the Belgian central securities depository Euroclear.
Former World Bank chief Robert Zoellick called on Western countries not to be afraid to use Russia’s frozen assets for the benefit of Ukraine, stressing the strategic advantage of such actions.
