Politico: There is a fight in the US Senate over a bill on the transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine

There is a behind-the-scenes fight in the US Senate over a bill to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

This was reported by the American publication Politico, citing sources.

What disagreements arose

Two key members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are reportedly at odds over a pending REPO bill that would use assets confiscated from the Russian Central Bank to help rebuild Ukraine.

Tomorrow, committee chairman Ben Cardin will propose amendments to soften the bill.

Cardin wants to introduce language that would allow asset transfers only with the consent of all G7 countries.– said in the publication.

As Politico notes, this discussion became public because a pro-Ukrainian group sent a letter to the committee rejecting Cardin’s proposals.

It would be unprecedented and unconstitutional to require the prior consent of foreign governments, – the letter says.

REPO is a multilateral body created by Western countries in 2022, responsible for the search and seizure of property associated with the Russian Federation on the basis of sanctions.

The group includes the US ministers of Justice and Treasury, representatives of the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the European Commission.

In 2023, US senators introduced a bill giving the country’s President Joseph Biden the right to confiscate and transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

The document, the main authors of which were Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican Jim Risch, is intended to provide additional assistance to Ukraine using funds confiscated from the Russian Central Bank and other sovereign assets of the Russian Federation.

After the start of the Russian special operation, Western countries imposed sanctions against the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, freezing its reserves.

The exact volume of frozen assets is not known. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation at the end of June 2021, about $288 billion was stored in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Austria, and approximately another $63 billion was stored in unnamed countries.

At the beginning of 2022, as the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reported, approximately half of its $630.6 billion in assets were held in assets in key reserve currencies. According to media reports, Western countries managed to find about $287 billion in Russian assets.

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