As Congress moves closer to passing the massive omnibus spending bill, the U.S. is likely to fund Ukrainian reconstruction efforts, in part, using the assets seized from Russian oligarchs.
Before the senate passed the $1.7 trillion spending package last night, lawmakers inserted an amendment allowing the attorney general to send assets seized from Russian oligarchs as contributions to Ukrainian reconstruction efforts. After Russia invaded Ukraine this year, the Justice Department initiated a task force — called KleptoCapture — to seize assets of Russian elites implicated in criminal acts, a program that has resulted in the seizure of assets worth millions of dollars. In July, a U.S.-led effort involving other countries announced that it had blocked or seized over $30 billion in illicit assets.
Although U.S. assistance to Ukraine has become a thorny political issue, the oligarch provision had received bipartisan support in the House, where it was initially introduced as a stand-alone bill. That stand-alone provision had also received support from the Republican Study Committee — the largest group of conservatives in the House — even though most House GOP members are expected to vote against the broader omnibus bill.
After the Senate incorporated the amendment into the omnibus, representatives Steve Cohen, Tom Malinowski, and Joe Wilson, alongside senators Lindsey Graham, Sheldon Whitehouse, Michael Bennet, and Richard Blumenthal issued a statement praising the move:
This new law will enable proceeds from recovered Russian oligarch assets to be sent directly to Ukraine for defense, reconstruction, and reparation. It’s a matter of basic justice that Russian criminals linked to Putin should pay for this brutal, illegal, and unprovoked war against Ukraine. Today, Congress has ensured that they will. Potential assets total in the billions.