US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced the first transfer of confiscated Russian funds to help rebuild Ukraine.
In February, Garland had authorised the allocation to Ukraine of $5.3 million seized from the accounts of Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.
“I had authorised the transfer of these funds (…) to remedy the evils of the unjust war” waged by Moscow in Ukraine, he recalled in a statement. The sum “has now been transferred to the State Department and will be dedicated to this cause,” he added.
“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.”
In March 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, the United States announced the creation of a cell dedicated to the prosecution of “corrupt Russian oligarchs” and all those who violate the sanctions adopted by Washington against Moscow.
Since then, the Americans have sanctioned and blocked more than $1 billion worth of ships and planes, and frozen assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars held by Russian elites in US bank accounts.
In April 2022, in particular, they seized funds belonging to Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev, considered one of the main sources of funding for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
At the same time, the US judiciary indicted Malofeyev for seeking to secretly acquire and run media outlets across Europe, in violation of sanctions against him.
Democratic President Joe Biden had wanted to earmark the seized assets for aid to Ukraine from the start of the conflict. To do so, however, the authorities must prove that they are linked to illegal activity, which is not always easy.
