Speaker Johnson Eyes Funding Ukraine Aid With Seized Russian Assets, calls it ‘pure poetry’; Johnson Floats Confiscating Russian Assets to Fund Ukraine War Aid

Speaker Johnson eyes funding Ukraine aid with seized Russian assets, calls it ‘pure poetry’

Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would like to use billions in seized Russian assets to pay for President Biden’s Ukraine aid request.

Mr. Johnson’s pitch comes as the top House Republican already diverted from Mr. Biden’s $106 billion request by splitting Israel aid from the larger package that included aid spending for the Jewish state, Ukraine, Taiwan and spending on the U.S.-Mexico border to bolster the president’s catch and release policies.

House Republicans have increasingly shifted their stance on providing more aid to Ukraine, arguing that no more taxpayer dollars should flow to the war-beleaguered country until the Biden administration offers clear-cut objectives for the conflict.

Mr. Johnson of Louisiana told the New York Post that he’s interested in using the more than $300 billion in Russian assets seized after fighting began in the region to fund future Ukraine aid.

“It would be pure poetry to fund the Ukrainian war effort with Russian assets,” Mr. Johnson said. “As you can imagine, that idea has been met with great enthusiasm on the Republican side. I suspect it will be with our colleagues on the other side as well. It’s an eminently responsible thing for us to do.”

Mr. Biden asked that Congress approve over $61 billion in Ukraine aid in his latest emergency supplemental request, which included money for weapons and aid. House Republicans balked at pairing the Ukraine aid with Israel aid and opted to pluck money for the Jewish state from the package. —>READ MORE HERE

Speaker Mike Johnson floats confiscating Russian assets to fund Ukraine war aid: ‘It would be pure poetry’:

House Speaker Mike Johnson is suggesting that the US should confiscate assets owned by the Russian government to pay for more aid to Ukraine. 

It would be pure poetry to fund the Ukrainian war effort with Russian assets,” Johnson told the New York Post.

“As you can imagine, that idea has been met with great enthusiasm on the Republican side,” he continued. “I suspect it will be with our colleagues on the other side as well. It’s an eminently responsible thing for us to do.”

It’s not as straightforward as it sounds.

Lawmakers have introduced bills to confiscate Russian government assets for Ukraine, such as the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act. But that bill is aimed at funding Ukraine’s eventual reconstruction, rather than military aid.

Roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets have been frozen globally since the country’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — but two-thirds of that money sits in European accounts, not American accounts.

Furthermore, confiscating those assets comes with significant risks, including hurting both the dollar and Euro’s stature as major reserve currencies, strengthening domestic support in Russia for the war, and potentially violating international laws. —>READ MORE HERE

Source