The US Senate supported the project on the confiscation of Russian assets

The special committee of the US Senate on Wednesday supported the draft law on the confiscation of Russian assets frozen due to sanctions. If the project is accepted, the USA will be able to transfer these assets to Ukraine to compensate for the damage caused by Russian military aggression.

The draft law is called “Act on restoration of economic well-being and opportunities for Ukraine” (REPO). 20 members of the committee voted for his approval against one. The project will then be submitted for consideration by the Senate as a whole, then the House of Representatives, and in case of approval, it will be submitted to the President of the United States for signature. If the bill goes into effect, it will be the first time the US can seize assets associated with a country it is not at war with.

Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the Senate, Ben Cardin, said that Russia can defeat Ukraine if it does not receive all the necessary assistance. “And we all know that this will not end with Ukraine alone,” he emphasized.

Moscow previously stated that in response to the freezing or confiscation of Russian assets abroad, it may take similar steps in relation to the assets of “unfriendly countries” in Russia, which it estimates to be at least 288 billion dollars.

• After the introduction of sanctions due to the war in Ukraine, Russian assets worth about 300 billion dollars were frozen in the USA, EU countries, Canada and Japan. In the USA, the amount of frozen Russian property is approximately 5-6 billion dollars.
• Most of the Russian assets under sanctions are located in Europe. The countries of the European Union have not yet developed a legal mechanism for their confiscation, but they are looking for an opportunity to transfer to Ukraine the profit that these assets continue to bring.