No legal issues in using proceeds from frozen Russian assets – US Treasury

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has stated that there have been no legal issues with using the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with a US$50 billion loan.

Source: Voice of America, citing Janet Yellen in the АВС programme This Week on 16 June

Details: Yellen dismissed Putin's accusations that using the proceeds from Russian state assets for Ukraine's benefit is supposedly theft.

Quote: "There is no sense at all in which it's theft. The Russian assets remain in this institution. They’ve been impounded. The investments that Russia had have matured. So, Russia’s funds are sitting in cash, but they're generating income for the institution which Russia has no claim on."

Details: Yellen added that nearly US$200 billion of immobilised Russian state assets will remain frozen in a Belgian financial institution, which receives income from them. 

The European Union has agreed to transfer the income from these immobilised Russian assets to Ukraine, which is estimated to be around US$3 billion per year.

Quote: "So there's no legal issue here."

"We're really in a battle of wills with Putin. Putin, I think, believes that our coalition will crumble in the sense we won't go on providing Ukraine with the resources that they need to fight this war and to keep their economy running. And this is a way of showing that we have the capacity and the will to do so."

Background: Last week, the G7 agreed on a plan to provide Ukraine with a US$50 billion loan. The loan will be funded through the income from Russian assets. Putin called this plan "theft" and threatened that it "will be punished". 

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