US Attorney General approves transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine

Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a meeting with Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin that I have authorized the first-ever transfer of confiscated Russian assets for use in Ukraine. A court in New York confiscated 5.4 million USD from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who entered the US sanctions list in 2014, and was accused of trying to circumvent sanctions in 2022.

According to Maxim Osadchy, head of the analysis department of the Russian BKF Bank, the strengthening of sanctions leads to an increase in the outflow of private capital from Russia. According to data from the Central Bank of Russia, deposits of Russians in foreign banks reached $81.7 billion as of November 2022, according to the data from the Central Bank of Russia. They were $30.6 billion in January 2022. The outflow is mainly directed towards Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

The situation in Eastern Ukraine is becoming increasingly difficult, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his video address last night. With a decision yesterday, the Ukrainian citizenship of 10 high-ranking government officials from the times of President Viktor Yanukovych, who had Russian citizenship, was revoked.