United States begins transfer of arrested assets of Russian oligarchs to Kyiv

Washington will soon begin to transfer to Ukraine confiscated assets of Russia.

This was stated by the head of the working group of the US Ministry of Justice to identify and arrest Russian assets Andrew Adams.

“In the future, we are also aimed at starting the transfer of confiscated assets in favor of Ukraine,” he said at the seminar at the Gudzon Institute.

According to him, this is “a relatively new development of events.”

At the end of December, US President Joe Biden approved the law on the federal budget for 2023, which includes an initiative to remove the assets of Russian billionaires frozen as a result of sanctions. The US Ministry of Justice will have to redirect these funds to the State Department that will provide them to Kyiv.

However, as Adams noted, the law does not allow transferring all confiscated assets.

“This is not an ideal solution, but nevertheless gives hope that the first transfer of funds from the Ministry of Justice of the State Department will begin in the coming weeks and months, when the final decisions are received to seizure in relation to some assets,” he said.

of the whole EU and the “large seven” frozen about $ 311 billion reserves of the Central Bank of Russia. The EU also arrested assets of Russian oligarchs in the amount of about 19 billion euros. However, at least 21 Russian billionaires were sued the EU for the introduction of sanctions. They insist that legal justifications for freezing their assets within the EU are erroneous, and require sanctions.