U.S. Senate committee bill for confiscation of Russian assets – Reuters

The U.S. Senate committee has approved a bill that will facilitate the confiscation of Russian assets and their transfer to Ukraine for post-destruction recovery, Reuters reports.

Reuters informed that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 20 to 1 for the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act (REPO).

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed a similar bill, also with strong bipartisan support, journalists noted.

The publication stated that if the bill is fully passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by U.S. President Joe Biden, it will pave the way for Washington's first-ever confiscation of a central bank's assets from a country with which it is not at war.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is "optimistic" about the bill's passage, noting it has broad support from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House, as well as from the president's administration.

"This is why it has to be done right," Cardin commented to the agency.

Journalists report that this bill stipulates that any seized Russian funds will be used for Ukraine's reconstruction. It is not linked to Biden's request for an additional $61 billion in security assistance funding for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, on January 23, it was revealed that the EU plans to apply a windfall tax on the frozen assets of the Central Bank of Russia, without confiscating the funds. A group of countries, including Germany, made it clear that they are against seizing Russian assets for legal reasons, the publication reports, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Read also: EU plans to tax frozen Russian assets without confiscation, reports Bloomberg