President Joe Biden wants to sell the luxury yachts and opulent apartments the US government has confiscated from Russian oligarchs and then send that money to Ukraine to help them repel Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Biden on Thursday called on Congress to expand his powers as president to allow him to do just that.
“Seizing Yachts, Funding the War”, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted about the request.
President Joe Biden wants to sell the luxury yachts and opulent apartments the US government has confiscated from Russian oligarchs and send money to Ukraine — above is the “Tango” — the confiscated 254-foot yacht to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close Putin ally, that’s worth an estimated $120 million
More than a dozen yachts worth about $2.5 billion have been seized in several countries around the world
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week his country has suffered $550 billion in economic damage since Russia’s invasion on February 24. The country is demanding at least $5 billion a month in international emergency aid.
In his White House speech on Thursday, Biden also asked Congress for an additional $33 billion in military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, which officials said could fund the war there for the next five months.
He said the money previously allocated to the Ukrainians had been spent.
“Basically, we’re running out of money,” he said in a speech at the White House.
The money includes $20.4 billion in additional security and military aid, $8.5 billion in economic aid and $3 billion in humanitarian assistance.
“We need to contribute guns to fund ammunition and the economic support so their bravery and sacrifices have meaning so they can continue this fight and do what they do. It is critical that this funding is approved and approved as soon as possible,” Biden said.
Humanitarian assistance includes funds for high thermal blankets, medical supplies, emergency health kits, safe drinking water, direct food assistance such as wheat and flour, job training, trauma-informed mental health services, and school funding.
Biden said funding groceries will help mitigate rising prices in the United States. Ukraine is a major producer of wheat and sunflowers. The war there has cut the supply lines and caused the price to spike.
“This one will help ease rising food prices both at home and abroad,” Biden claimed.
Biden’s request comes as there has been a bipartisan push in Washington to more aggressively punish Russia’s elite, a group of billionaires – many of whom made their money from Putin’s regime.
The Biden administration has already imposed sanctions on two dozen oligarchs and their family members, including Putin himself.
More than a dozen yachts worth about $2.5 billion have been seized in several countries around the world, including the “Tango” – a 254-foot yacht owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally of Putin, which has an estimated value of 120 million US dollars.
It was seized by the US at its Spanish port earlier this month.
It was the first US seizure of an oligarch’s yacht since Attorney General Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen formed a task force called REPO – short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs – to enforce sanctions imposed after Putin invaded the Ukraine were imposed.
The federal government “sanctioned and blocked ships and planes worth over a billion dollars and froze hundreds of millions of dollars in Russian elite assets in US bank accounts,” the White House said.
The government also noted that European Union member states have reported over $30 billion in asset freezes, including nearly $7 billion in boats, helicopters, real estate and works of art.
Russia’s billionaires control about 30 percent of the nation’s wealth.
Biden is asking Congress for an additional $33 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week his country has suffered $550 billion in economic damage since Russia’s invasion on February 24
And lawmakers have already pushed for using those confiscated assets to help Ukraine.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a mostly symbolic measure urging Biden to sell the oligarchs’ frozen assets to provide the money for Ukraine’s military and humanitarian aid.
The law is not binding, but its passage by a vote of 417 to 8 reflected a desire by Democrats and Republicans to suppress Russia more aggressively.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would be taken up by the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
But the Justice Department needs a bylaw amendment by Congress to sort out the jumble of legal issues that need to be resolved before the United States can repurpose the yachts and extravagant apartments as de facto reparations for Ukrainians.
In his March 1 State of the Union address, President Biden warned oligarchs that US and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”
“We’ve come about your ill-gotten gains,” he said.