Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian government assets are frozen and sitting in banks in the United States and Europe. A vote paving the way for President Joe is expected in the House of Representatives on Saturday. Biden will confiscate billions of dollars and hand them over to Ukraine.
“Someone has to pay for the rebuilding,” former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who supports using Russian assets to help Ukraine, said in an interview Friday. “And I think it should be President Putin, not the American people.”
The REPO Act would give Biden the power to confiscate frozen Russian assets in U.S. banks and transfer them to a special fund for Ukraine, and is part of a foreign aid package that has been stalled in the House of Representatives for months. be. More than $6 billion of the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets is sitting in U.S. banks. Most of the $300 billion is in Germany, France and Belgium.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a package that includes tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Johnson defended his decision to go ahead with the vote on Saturday, telling reporters: “I'm going to give every member of the House the opportunity to vote their conscience and will on this issue.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government have invested heavily in euros and dollars over the years to maintain the ruble's stability, amassing around $300 billion worth of foreign exchange reserves.
However, in early 2022, in response to President Putin's invasion of Ukraine, all seven major countries (G7), including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, united to seize all of Russia's foreign currency worth $300 billion. Frozen. Reserves held in banks in those countries, most of which are in Europe.
“Shortly after the war began, the Russians were surprised to see that European countries took the exact same steps as the United States and froze all the stockpiles that were there, and Japan did the same. That's why today Russia That's why most of the stockpile is frozen,'' said Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University's Fletcher School.
The idea of confiscating Russian assets emerged last year and has been hotly debated among economists and foreign policy experts.
In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, opinion writer Christopher Caldwell argues that Russia's He said confiscating the funds was a “terrible idea”.
“This could weaken the dollar's position as the world's major reserve currency. The dollar is probably the most valuable strategic asset held by the United States,” Caldwell argued.
McFaul, who has been lobbying for the REPO law for months, applauded Caldwell's claims and said the use of Russian assets in Ukraine sends an important message to authoritarian states around the world. He said it would be.
“Some people say, 'Well, this is going to hurt the dollar.' It's bad for our reputation.” I have a backlash against that. We don't want criminals investing in U.S. government bonds,” McFall said.
One diplomatic challenge will be convincing other G7 countries to do the same. Britain supports the idea, but France and Germany are reluctant.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told reporters on April 9: “We're making good progress on how we can access the funds under the agreement and I think we can bring that to the G7.”
Amid the diplomatic maneuvering, a group behind the scenes is relentlessly applying pressure. Congress, the White House, and G7 countries have called for moving forward with the idea of confiscating the funds.
The Renew Democracy Initiative, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes democracy and America's overseas interests, on Friday urged Majority Leader Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to pass the REPO Act. sent a letter urging them to cooperate.
“Your leadership through legislative action will increase the likelihood that the regime will do what is necessary to confiscate President Putin's billions of dollars,” said RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov and RDI CEO Uriel. Epshtein writes.
Epshteyn said in an interview Friday that he believes U.S. action will be needed to achieve G7 cooperation to confiscate the funds.
“Other G7 countries will only take action to confiscate Russian assets if the United States takes the lead,” Epshteyn said.
