Global Sanctions Dashboard: What to do with sanctioned Russian assets
Mar 27, 2023 | Featured, Politics
Source: Atlantic Council, US Treasury Department, EU Commission • The 1 trillion dollars of total Russian oligarch money abroad is a rough estimate based on 2020 Atlantic Council research (the amount does not distinguish between sanctioned and non-sanctioned oligarch money). State assets include the Russian Central Bank and National Wealth Fund. The $300 billion of the Russian state assets is blocked but the location of $200 billion is unknown.
In this edition of the Global Sanctions Dashboard, we answer the most controversial question about the blocked Russian state assets: to seize them or not to seize them? We propose a solution that would transfer funds directly and quickly to Ukraine without triggering a host of legal obstacles in the United States and Europe. We also look into Georgia and its ruling party Georgian Dream’s attempt to pass the foreign agent law, which has prompted widespread global criticism.
Russian oligarch assets should be used now to support Ukraine
The European Commission estimates that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has caused an estimated $650 billion (converted to dollars from the original source) of damage to the Ukrainian economy. There is broad international agreement that Russia should pay for the damage it has caused. However, the debate remains as to how and when Russia should pay. It is important to distinguish between immobilized Russian state assets and blocked Russian oligarch assets. Currently, the authority does not exist to seize state assets and transfer them to Ukraine. It would require new legislation or amendments to existing law. It could also erode non-Western countries’ perception of the United States as a safe place for parking their reserves. Meanwhile, the United States and European Union (EU) member states already have the legal authorities and mechanisms to seize and transfer sanctioned oligarch assets.
What are the immediate steps?
Seize the blocked fifty-eight billion dollars’ worth of sanctioned oligarch assets and expedite their transfer to Ukraine. The multilateral Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarch (REPO) Task Force, run by finance and justice ministries of Western ally states, recently reported that REPO member states have blocked fifty-eight billion dollars’ worth of sanctioned Russian oligarch assets. Fortunately, in the United States the legal process for seizing sanctioned assets is already in place: a judge in Manhattan federal court recently ordered the confiscation of $5.4 million from sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev. The forfeited funds will be transferred to the State Department to provide assistance to Ukraine.
Read More: atlanticcouncil.org
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