President Joe Biden implored Congress to empower his administration so it can keep up its crackdown on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs two months after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Biden called on lawmakers to pass a set of legislative proposals that would create new authorities so the United States can seize Russian kleptocracy-connected property, permit the federal government to use the proceeds to support Ukraine, and improve law enforcement tools in an address at the White House on Thursday.
“We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes, and other ill-begotten gains,” Biden said of the oligarchs.
There was an awkward moment when Biden struggled to pronounce the word “kleptocracy.”
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Drafted with the State Department, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, and the Commerce Department, one of the provisions makes it unlawful for any person to possess (knowingly or intentionally) proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government, and another incorporates sanctions evasion into the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act’s definition of “racketeering activity.”
Separate measures would mean the U.S. could also forfeit property used to violate sanctions, in addition to sanctioning proceeds, and extend the statute of limitations from five to 10 years.
The framework, proposed in tandem with an additional $33 billion Ukraine budget request, coincides with criticism that the U.S. and its partners are not pursuing Putin’s rumored girlfriend and mother of three of his six children, Alina Kabaeva.
“No one is safe from our sanctions,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters this week. “We’ve already, of course, sanctioned President Putin, but also his [adult daughters], his closest cronies, and we’ll continue to review more.”
Biden is simultaneously pushing Congress to pass a $33 billion budget request, with $20 billion for military and weapons support, $8.5 billion in economic assistance, and $3 billion in humanitarian and food aid. Lawmakers approved a $13.6 billion request last month.
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The extra funding “is what we believe is needed to enable Ukraine success over the next five months of this war,” a senior administration official told reporters Thursday.
“The cost of this fight? It’s not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly, if we allow it to happen,” Biden added.
