After the freezing of Russian assets abroad, Joe Biden wants to go further. The American president announced, this Thursday, April 28, that he wanted to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine with the property of oligarchs subject to sanctions. “We will seize their yachts and all their ill-gotten gains,” he said during a press conference at the White House broadcast by the New York Times. “They are not nice people.”
To justify the method, the Democrat notably criticized the “kleptocracy”, of which these rich Russians are, according to him, the representatives. He intends to make it a federal crime to “knowingly or intentionally possessing proceeds directly from unsavory dealings with the Russian government”, and thus fight against possible circumvention of American sanctions against Russia. US authorities claim to have frozen several hundred million dollars in assets in US banks and blocked several private ships and planes.
An additional 33 billion
According to the Washington Post, the expropriation of these properties would considerably expand the powers of the federal government. “Currently, US authorities can legally freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals, but they cannot seize their property or liquidate their assets.” For this reason, the demands of the White House are likely to “to be the subject of heated and intense debate on Capitol Hill”.
But the most difficult discussions may well be on a related topic. “The president will also ask Congress to consider a broader request for funding, up to $33 billion, to help Ukrainians fight the Russian invasion,” says the Washington newspaper. Such an amount represents “more than double the envelope of 13.6 billion dollars” approved by US lawmakers last month.
For the New York Times, the magnitude of this new demand for funds shows “that the United States and its allies prepare for a long conflict in Ukraine”. In detail, the White House project includes a military component, of around 20 billion dollars, intended among other things for sending arms to Ukraine. Economic aid of $8.5 billion is also planned, as is a humanitarian component of $3 billion, including “500 million dollars intended to support American agriculture in order to cope with the global food shock caused by the war”.