US reveals value of frozen Russian assets
A multinational task force has frozen $30 billion in funds belonging to sanctioned Russian individuals and $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets, the US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday.
The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force “blocked or frozen more than $30 billion worth” of “assets in financial accounts and economic resources,” reads the statement published on the Treasury’s website.
The $300 billion worth of Russian Central Bank assets were “immobilized” by the task force, while yachts and luxury real estate were also “seized, frozen, or detained,” the statement adds.
The task force was formed in March to enforce Western sanctions against Russia over its military operation in Ukraine. REPO includes finance and justice officials from the US, Britain, European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada, and Japan. According to the US Treasury, REPO members will continue to track sanctioned Russian assets in the coming months.
The European Commission proposed a plan last month to use the frozen Russian assets to finance post-war reconstruction in Ukraine. The US Treasury warned, however, that such seizures would not be legal, while some voices in the US have also raised concern about the appropriateness of such a step, warning that innocent people may be penalized.
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