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President Joe Biden will on Thursday ask Congress for new funding to support Ukraine’s military, as well as the adoption of new legal mechanisms to tighten sanctions and confiscate the property of Russian oligarchs.
Biden is expected to seek significant funding from Congress to help Ukraine withstand Russian aggression, as well as new legal powers to seize money from Russian oligarchs and then send them to Ukraine to fund efforts. war.
The administration will seek the approval of all the funds it envisions it will need by September, the end of the fiscal year, to support Ukraine’s military operations, as well as humanitarian and economic assistance, a White House spokeswoman said Wednesday. Jen Psaki.
President Biden is also proposing that Congress pass new powers to his administration that would allow US officials to seize more oligarchs’ property, hand over confiscated money to Ukraine, and tighten measures against avoiding sanctions, the White House said.
Among the measures proposed is to authorize the Department of Justice to use the strict US anti-financial fraud law, which has been used against the mafia in the past, to prosecute those who evade sanctions.
President Biden also aims to give prosecutors more time to prepare such cases by extending the statute of limitations on money laundering prosecutions to 10 years, instead of the current five. He also seeks to criminalize the possession of money knowingly taken from corrupt relations with Russia, according to a summary of the proposals.
The measures are part of US efforts to isolate and condemn Russia for its aggression against Ukraine, as well as to help Kiev recover from a war that has turned cities into rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee. leave the place.
US military aid to Ukraine has reached $ 3 billion since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Kiev and its Western allies call this characterization, a false pretext.
The United States and its European allies have frozen $ 30 billion in assets of wealthy individuals linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including yachts, helicopters, real estate and works of art, the Biden administration has said./VOA
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