The Biden administration has sought increased powers to send seized assets from Russian sanctions evaders to aid Kyiv.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland has authorised the first transfer of funds seized from Russian oligarchs to aid Ukraine.
In a statement on Wednesday, Garland said the money seized from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev will go towards the war-torn country, which Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.
“While this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine,” Garland said, “it will not be the last.”.
Prosecutors said he provided financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, a peninsula the country annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, called on Congress last year to make it easier to transfer seized oligarch assets to Ukraine.
In April, the Justice Department asked Congress to expand the assets that can be sent to Ukraine, particularly funds seized for violating export controls. »
