Vladimir Putin. Photo: EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV
Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday permitting the use of US assets in Russia to compensate the Russian Federation and the Central Bank for their confiscated assets in the US.
The decree allows the Russian Federation and the Central Bank to legally establish the fact of their “unjust deprivation of their rights to property” in the United States, and establishes a government commission to identify US assets seized in Russia that could be used as compensation.
The European Union on Tuesday approved the transfer of revenue generated by frozen Russian assets in the EU to Ukraine. European depository institutions will be required to transfer 99.7% of net profits generated by the management of Russian assets. The payments will initially go to the EU budget, but will later be transferred to Kyiv.
Depository institutions, which are permitted to keep the remaining 0.3% of revenue generated by frozen assets, are required to make payments twice a year until profits cease to accumulate or until Russian assets in Europe are unfrozen.
Under the agreement, 90% of the proceeds from frozen Russian Central Bank assets will be transferred into a fund for military aid and the reconstruction of Ukraine, while 10% of the net profits will be temporarily retained by the depositories for capital requirement and risk management purposes.
