As extreme as the move to freeze Russian assets was, the current effort to steal the Russian assets is even more extreme and potentially dangerous to U.S. standing in the world of international finance.
The REPO Act authorizes the confiscation of certain Russian assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction including U.S. Treasury securities and the use of those assets to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The REPO Act says, "The President may confiscate any Russian sovereign assets subject to the jurisdiction of the United States." Such assets confiscated are to be deposited in a "Ukraine Support Fund" to be managed by the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
Section 103 provides that "No Russian asset that is blocked may be released or mobilized until the President certifies that hostilities between the Russian Federation and Ukraine have ceased; and full compensation has been made to Ukraine." Since those conditions are unlikely to be met in any scenario, this means that Trump cannot release the stolen assets since he cannot offer the certification.
The impact of the REPO Act is limited by the fact that only about $10 billion of Russian sovereign assets are actually under U.S. jurisdiction.
The act then says that the assets of the Ukraine Support Fund will be contributed to the Common Ukraine Fund.
The impact of the REPO Act is now being felt by U.S. banks as well.
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