The US senators, authors of the bill for new sanctions against Russia, believe that US President Donald Trump can use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
„I don't want to get ahead of the president, but stay tuned for the news about the frozen assets. The Europeans want to limit themselves to transferring the proceeds from these assets to Ukraine. US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant wants to go further. Stay tuned for the news about plans to take more aggressive measures against the frozen assets“, said Senator Lindsey Graham in an interview with CBS.
Senator Richard Blumenthal added that „Europeans can get access to frozen Russian assets“. “They are developing plans for at least some of these assets, billions of dollars of revenue from them“, the lawmaker said, noting that “$5 billion in the United States could also be used“.
On July 8, Trump said he could approve a bill on new sanctions against Russia through Congress. It was introduced in early April. The main authors of the document were Senators Graham and Blumenthal. Their initiative includes a 500% tariff on imports into the United States from countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other goods from Russia.
The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan have frozen Russian assets worth about $300 billion since the start of hostilities. Of these, about $5-6 billion is in the United States, and most of it is in Europe, including on the international platform Euroclear in Belgium, where $210 billion is stored.