- The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine, prompting Russia to consider confiscation of Western assets.
- Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin warned that the move could provoke the EU to follow suit and harm the European economy.
- Only $5-6 billion of Russia’s assets are in the United States, and about 210 billion euros in the European Union.
A leading Russian lawmaker said on Monday that Russia now has grounds to confiscate Western assets after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.
Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and speaker of the State Duma, said: “Washington passed the law on confiscation of Russian assets in order to encourage the EU to take similar measures. It will have a huge impact.”
“Our country now has good reasons to make symmetrical decisions regarding foreign assets,” Borodin said.
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Borodin said that of the $280 billion in Russian assets frozen overseas, only $5 billion to $6 billion is in the United States.
On September 26, 2018, the State Duma in Moscow, Russia, votes on the pension reform bill, with Russian parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in attendance. Russia now has grounds to follow the United States and confiscate Western assets. Volodin said on Monday that the Duma had passed a bill that would allow for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine. (Reuters/Sergey Kalpkin/File photo)
About $224 billion was in the European Union.
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The House of Representatives has passed the REPO Act, which would allow US President Joe Biden’s administration to confiscate billions of dollars worth of Russian assets held in US banks and transfer them to Ukraine for rehabilitation.
