The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill calling on President Joe Biden to liquidate the seized assets of oligarchs linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin to fund efforts to help the Ukrainian people.
The ’’Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act,” introduced by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), was passed 417-8. The measure is symbolic, since it wouldn’t force Biden to do anything.
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“It is hard to imagine giving Russia’s wealth back to Putin while Ukraine lies in ruin and Ukrainians are burying their dead,” Malinowski said in a statement.
The bill encourages the president to confiscate assets worth over $2 million from individuals with ties to Putin who have been sanctioned by the U.S. in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Funds from sales of seized assets should be spent helping Ukrainians, including reconstructing their country, humanitarian aid and technological support “to ensure the free flow of information to the Ukrainian people in Ukraine, including items to counter internet censorship by Russian authorities.”
The bill says some of the money also should go to “democracy and human rights programming and monitoring” for Russians.
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“It is long past time that Putin’s cronies, who have amassed wealth on the backs of the Russian people, pay for their complicit role in Putin’s crimes against humanity,” Wilson said.
Earlier this month, U.S. authorities made their first seizure of an asset belonging to a Putin-friendly oligarch — the Tango, a 255-foot yacht in the port of Palma de Mallorca worth over $90 million.
“It will not be the last,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said of the yacht owned by Ukraine-born billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
The American Civil Liberties Union had warned that an earlier version of the bill would have been unconstitutional because it wouldn’t have allowed challenges by individuals whose assets were taken. A court ruling against the measure could have scored Russia a propaganda win, The Washington Post reported.
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The bill was amended in response to the concerns. The version passed by the House calls on Biden to create a working group under Secretary of State Antony Blinken to finalize “constitutional mechanisms” required to seize and liquidate assets.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is discussing the measure with the White House ahead of possible Senate consideration, according to The New York Times.
