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Kremlin critic Bill Browder suggested that the confiscation of frozen Russian assets would be "insurance" for Ukraine should Donald Trump win this year's U.S. presidential election and halt funding to the war-torn country.
"Seizing the $300+ billion of Russian central bank reserves for Ukraine would be 'Donald Trump insurance,'" said Browder, CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment adviser to the Hermitage Fund, which was once Russia's largest foreign portfolio investor.
"If he gets elected, he will cut off funding for Ukraine and this may be the difference between victory and defeat," Browder, who describes himself as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "No.1 Enemy," said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Browder was referring to reports that the Biden administration could be close to seizing more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets stashed in Western nations and handing them to Ukraine to aid its war effort.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration had shifted its position to back legislation before Congress that would allow, but not oblige, President Joe Biden to confiscate the frozen Russian assets.
Trump is the leading Republican presidential candidate, and a Newsweek analysis released this month suggested Trump is on track for a second White House term because of his stronger performance in swing states.
The former president has said he could end the nearly 23-month-old war in Ukraine "in 24 hours" if he is re-elected, and he has declined to pledge to continue sending aid to Kyiv if he wins.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry by email for comment.
In December, The New York Times cited unidentified senior American and European officials as saying that the White House is quietly signaling new support for confiscating the immobilized Russian sovereign assets. The Biden administration, in coordination with G7 governments, is exploring whether it can use its existing authorities or if it should seek congressional action to use the funds, the publication reported.
Previously, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that it would not be legal for the U.S. to seize those assets: "It's not something that is legally permissible in the United States."
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister in charge of ties with the U.S., non-proliferation and arms control, has said that one of the possible red lines to the breakdown of relations between Washington and Moscow could be the confiscation of frozen Russian assets.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more