The package – developed through an interagency process involving the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the State Department and the Ministry of Trade – will “establish new bodies for confiscating Russian kleptocracy-related assets, allow the government to use revenues to support Ukraine and further strengthening related law enforcement instruments, “the White House said in a statement. The proposal is expected to come with a request for Congress to approve new additional aid to Ukraine, including military, economic and humanitarian aid, which is expected to continue at the end of the fiscal year. Biden is ready to comment on the offer of support for Ukraine at 10:45 a.m. ET in Roosevelt’s White House room. Although members agreed that more money is needed for Ukraine, it is still unclear how quickly the amendment will pass through Congress, nor is it clear how quickly this proposal can develop for the oligarchs. The likely path would be to link the two pieces of legislation together, but Republican and Democratic leaders are in the early stages of talks on how to move more funding to Ukraine.
One element of the package will streamline the federal government’s efforts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs by creating a new administrative process through the Treasury and the Department of Justice “to seize property in the United States that is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and is This would make it a crime for people to “knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly from corrupt deals with the Russian government.”
The proposal will also help target revenues from “lost funds related to corruption, sanctions and breaches of export controls and other specific crimes, to repair the damage from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”, such as the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and the state is working together on these efforts. Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Biden administration would support legislation that would allow some of the proceeds from assets confiscated by the Justice Department from Russian oligarchs “to go directly to Ukraine.”
The proposed package would allow “the retention of assets that Russian oligarchs can use to help evade sanctions,” a change in current US law that allows the United States only to lose revenue from sanctions violations. It will also categorize avoidance of sanctions as “racketeering”, extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting money laundering on the basis of foreign crimes from five to 10 years, and improve the US ability to work with allies and asset recovery partners related to foreign corruption.
The president announced last week that the United States would send an additional $ 800 million in military aid to Ukraine as Russia redirected its campaign to seize new territory in the country’s eastern region. Biden pointed out that the Russian war had entered what he called a “critical window”, which made Western military aid even more important.
If approved, the package announced last week would mean the United States has provided about $ 3.4 billion in aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
The president said the package announced last week included heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers – longer-range weapons – and 144,000 rounds of ammunition for these howitzers and more tactical drones.
Earlier this month, the United States announced another package of security aid worth about $ 800 million. This package included Mi-17 helicopters, Switchblade drones, chemical defense equipment, Javelin anti-tank missiles, M113 armored personnel carriers, anti-artillery radars and body armor and helmets.
In addition to military aid to Ukraine, the United States and its NATO allies have imposed a number of sanctions on Russia. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have imposed sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and banned some Russian banks from SWIFT, a high-security network that facilitates payments between 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries.
Biden has announced a ban on imports of Russian oil, natural gas and coal into the United States. The House of Representatives also passed a bill to suspend normal trade relations with Russia.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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