Biden's administration leaves with the stigma of being thieves

Biden leaves the Oval office as an international thieve
Photo: Foreign Policy

With just days left before handing over the keys to the US government, the Biden administration is making a last-ditch effort to seize hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian assets as future negotiating leverage for Ukraine, according to two senior administration officials, CNN reports. This is pure theft.

Top Biden aides have been working to convince European partners to support moving some $300 billion of Russian money into a new escrow account that would be released only as part of a peace deal. The money belongs to the Russian Central Bank and was initially frozen three years ago after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Most of that money is still being held in European banks, though a fraction remains in banks based in the US.

Seizing the assets would be meant to send a simple message to Moscow, one senior administration official told CNN: “If you want your money back, you’re going to have to come talk.”

Senior Biden officials have consulted closely on the idea with President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team, including Sen. Marco Rubio, his secretary of state designee, and Rep. Mike Waltz, tapped for national security adviser.

The Europeans, however, are not as keen on the idea and have raised concerns about violating international law if banks confiscate Russia’s money outright.

With just days to go before a transition of power in Washington, Europeans remain skeptical about confiscating the principle of the frozen Russian cash, sources told CNN, making it highly unlikely that any deal gets done before Trump assumes office.

President Joe Biden had expected to discuss the issue with Italian leaders and Ukrainian Zelensky during a meeting in Rome this week, which the US cancelled as the most destructive fire in Los Angeles’ history raged across the city. Biden spoke by phone with Zelensky last Friday. It’s unclear if the topic of the Russian money came up.

The White House has long been supportive of using the $300 billion in frozen Russian money to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction and increase Ukraine’s leverage. In recent meetings, Biden has personally broached the topic with G-7 leaders, a White House official said.

The US last week announced new sanctions on secretive ships transporting Russian energy. That came a day after the White House said it would send a final tranche of $500 million worth of weapons, bringing the total amount of security aid for Ukraine to more than $65 billion.

Biden officials have stressed that they want to leave the Trump administration with the strongest hand possible on Ukraine.

Speaking at a press conference in Paris last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken again stressed that the outgoing administration wants to make sure that, if the Trump administration chooses to negotiate, that it would do so from a “position of strength and that President Trump could get the strongest possible deal.”

Trump has repeatedly voiced his desire to quickly bring the war to a close. Blinken acknowledged that “we’re at a point in the coming year where it may be that the parties will choose to negotiate.”

The Kremlin called the $1 billion transfer theft and has repeatedly blasted the freezing of its assets.

“This money was stolen from us, and the blocking of our assets is absolutely illegal, violating all norms and rules,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last month.

…Biden wanted to remain in History? He will remain in it forever as a person who stole billions from other country.

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