The White House National Security Council is “in principle” backing a bill that would confiscate frozen Russian assets in the US and reallocate them to fund Ukraine’s war effort, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday citing an NSC memo from November.
“The bill would provide the authority needed for the executive branch to seize Russian sovereign assets for the benefit of Ukraine,” the memo said.
The US has frozen Russian assets worth around $300 billion (€273 billion), Bloomberg reported, adding that US President Joe Biden is believed to have endorsed the idea of confiscating Russian assets after Republicans blocked more than $60 billion (€54.6 billion) in aid to Ukraine.
The Biden administration intends to coordinate the confiscation of Russian funds with other members of the G7, Bloomberg reported, estimating that frozen Russian assets in Europe total around €182 billion.
A senior White House official who spoke to Bloomberg stressed that the confiscation of Russian assets and their reallocation to Ukraine, would essentially force Russia to pay war reparations for the damage done to Ukraine. The World Bank estimates the cost of reconstruction in Ukraine to total at least €374 billion.
