Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to give $500,000 worth of forfeited Russian funds to Ukraine as the embattled country tries to fend off the Kremlin’s invasion.
The U.S. will transfer nearly half of a million dollars in confiscated Russian funds to Estonia, which will be then transferred to Ukraine, according to a Saturday DOJ press release. Estonia is receiving the funds first, since “under current authorities, the facts of this case do not allow for a direct transfer to Ukraine.”
The funds were forfeited by the U.S. “following the breakup of an illegal procurement network attempting to import into Russia a high-precision, U.S.-origin machine tool with uses in the defense and nuclear proliferation sectors.”
Seizure of Russian funds clears the way, conceptually, for further seizures.
Ah I wasn’t aware this wasn’t already an established process. I assumed we’d done similar stuff before with folks like Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden when they went from our buddies to no-no bad guys that we deny ever actively supporting.
It’s harder when you still have diplomatic relations with a country.
Bin Laden we didn’t support, though. Just Saddam.
We definitely had relations with and pretty much supported Bin Laden. Just that Rumsfeld wasn’t buddying up to him, that we know of.