Media: the United States has intensified efforts to transfer frozen assets of the Russian Federation to Ukraine

Representatives of the administration of US President Joe Biden are increasingly insisting on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. About it writes The Washington Post (WP) newspaper cited three unnamed sources with knowledge of internal conversations.

As the newspaper notes, senior US officials have stepped up efforts to push Western governments to use blocked Bank of Russia assets to help Ukraine. According to WP, “if Washington acted alone,” it could transfer about $5 billion located in the United States to Kyiv. Most of the reserves are stored in Europe.

American authorities believe that the transfer of Russian assets will not replace US military and financial assistance, since the redirection of assets may take months, or even more than a year, writes WP. At the same time, the newspaper claims, within the Biden administration there is a growing number of arguments in favor of transferring assets to Ukraine. One source familiar with the content of the negotiations between senior US and European financial officials said that “the US has become much more open to not only blocking, but also using Russian reserves.”

At the same time, there are still legal and financial barriers to transferring assets. WP points to concerns among some experts that the confiscation of funds could prompt other countries to withdraw their assets from the eurozone.

After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Western countries introduced large-scale sanctions against the Russian Federation and froze Russian assets abroad. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reported in March 2022 that the Russian Federation had lost access to half of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Bank of Russia – about $300 billion. The head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the confiscation of 300 billion euros.

In December 2022, the US Senate approved an amendment according to which confiscated assets of Russian businessmen can be transferred for humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. At the beginning of September 2023, the US Department of Justice reportedthat they are looking for an opportunity to transfer confiscated Russian assets worth more than $1 billion to Ukraine.

The Kremlin called the freezing of Russian assets theft and a violation of international law. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov also saidthat Moscow may turn to the courts if the EU introduces a profit tax on frozen Russian assets.