The United States announced the imminent start of the transfer of confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine

In the near future, the United States intends to begin transferring part of the confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine, said Andrew Adams, head of the US Department of Justice working group on the identification and arrest of Russian assets subject to US restrictions. writes TASS.

“In the future, we also aim to start the transfer of confiscated assets in favor of Ukraine. I want to stress that this is a relatively new development,” he said.

US Senate in December 2022 accepted the draft federal budget for fiscal year 2023 in the amount of $1.66 trillion, which includes an amendment on the withdrawal of Russian assets in favor of Ukraine. This amendment was made by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. It was about the possibility of transferring the frozen assets of Russian businessmen and companies for humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine.

Last fall, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested create a structure for managing Russian assets. According to her, the blocked funds of the Russian Central Bank and the assets of Russian oligarchs confiscated due to sanctions should be combined into a fund, the funds of which should be invested, and the profit from these investments should be used for compensation payments to Ukraine. The head of the EC specified that Western countries blocked 300 billion euros of reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and 19 billion euros of private funds of Russian businessmen.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing statedthat the Russian side is considering all existing legal mechanisms for returning access to its frozen assets and is ready, if necessary, to apply separate “compensatory measures”. She emphasized that the plans of some countries to seize Russian assets are perceived by Moscow as a “gross encroachment on sovereign property” and will cause an appropriate response.