The US House of Representatives Committee approved the project of transferring Russian assets to Kyiv

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives supported a bill to transfer part of the confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine. About it reports TASS with reference to the broadcast of the committee meeting, which was broadcast on YouTube.

The initiative was supported by 40 legislators, two voted against. A date for consideration of the bill by the full House of Representatives has not yet been set.

The bill was introduced into the Senate and House of Representatives in June 2023. The authors of the initiative, which include both Democrats and Republicans, propose providing additional assistance to Ukraine at the expense of “assets confiscated from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and other sovereign assets of the Russian Federation.” According to the draft, legislators also advocate the creation of an “international compensation mechanism” for the transfer of assets of the Russian Federation to Kyiv.

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.

At the same time, most of Russian reserves are stored in Europe. In May 2023, the European Commission clarified that EU countries blocked 200 billion euros of Central Bank assets. The EU is also looking for ways to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. In particular, such a bill was previously introduced into the Estonian parliament. November 7 initiative supported constitutional commission.

In December 2022, the US Senate approved an amendment according to which confiscated assets of Russian businessmen could be transferred for humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine. In October, The Washington Post wrotethat the administration of US President Joe Biden is increasingly insisting on the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. According to the publication, “if Washington acted alone,” it could transfer about $5 billion located in the United States to Kyiv.

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