President Vladimir Putin signed a decree today authorizing Moscow to seize U.S. property as compensation for any frozen Russian assets in the United States.
Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Washington and its European allies seized or blocked around $300 billion of Russian financial assets. In retaliation, Moscow restricted the transfer of many foreign investors’ assets to special accounts within Russia that require Kremlin approval for any external transfers.
The new decree directs Russia’s state commission on monitoring foreign investment to identify the types of U.S. property that could be confiscated through court proceedings as “compensation” for the frozen Russian assets in the United States.
The decree specifies real estate, personal property, securities, shares, and property rights as potential targets for seizure. Russia’s government has been instructed to implement the necessary legal changes to facilitate the seizure of U.S. property by the end of September.
Since the invasion of Ukraine over two years ago, Moscow has threatened to confiscate the assets of countries it deems “hostile.” Last year, Putin authorized a temporary state takeover of the Russian operations of German energy giant Uniper and Finland’s Fortum in response to “unfriendly U.S. actions.”
Putin’s decree comes a month after U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation providing critical military aid to Ukraine.
This legislation also includes provisions for the U.S. to sell confiscated Russian assets and use the proceeds to support Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction efforts.
