Russia Says West Acting Like 'Bandits' for Wanting to Use Its Frozen Assets to Fund Ukraine War

Strait Talk

For more than a year, an estimated $300 billion dollars that belongs to Russia's central bank, has been sitting in accounts frozen by the US and its allies. Immediately after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, the US and several Western governments, blocked Moscow from accessing those funds. Now debate is growing both in Washington and Brussels on what to do with that money. Some US lawmakers are calling for it to be sent to Ukraine, to fund its war against Russia. Since February last year, the US and its allies have allocated nearly $200 billion dollars in support for Ukraine. But more than 13 months into the war, concerns are growing about sustaining that level of support. Tax payers in the West, already burdened by rising inflation, have been pressuring lawmakers for relief. One US senator is working on a new bill that would allow President Joe Biden to seize Russian central bank assets and make them available to Ukraine. But would that open up more legal and political problems and what precedent would it set? Guests: Evan Criddle Professor at William and Mary Law School Gregory Simons Researcher at Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies