US Response To Ukraine War: Senate Seeks Bounty Bill For Russian Oligarchs' Riches, Biden Remains Reluctant

The U.S. Senate is ramping up efforts to punish Russia with a new bill that will effectively put a bounty on information leading to oligarchs’ riches.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators pitched for the Treasury Department to offer cash rewards for information that leads to the seizure of assets held by sanctioned Russian oligarchs. Under the law, President Joe Biden would be granted the authority to issue an emergency declaration that would allow federal authorities to confiscate then liquidate holdings that belong to Russian elites close to the Kremlin.

As an added kicker, the bill would allow the funds acquired from this bill to go directly towards aiding Ukraine. In particular, they propose that money raised by selling those assets to fund reconstruction efforts or finance the Ukrainian military.

The bill is being pushed by a bipartisan team of senators including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who have been assertive in their calls to respond to Russian aggression.

On the surface, these proposals dovetail well with Biden’s promises to target the riches of Russian oligarchs or other Russian elites.

To date, the Biden administration has enacted scores of sanctions aimed at the Russian elite, which include the sanctioning of President Vladimir Putin himself. Biden has also ordered that U.S. airspace be closed to Russian airliners, a ban on Russian oil imports, and requested revocation of Russia’s “favored nation” trade status from Congress.

The White House has also staked out a tough position that targets the oligarchs directly. In his State of the Union address on March 1, Biden promised to seize the “ill-gotten gains” belonging to oligarchs in the West and his Justice Department established a task force called “KleptoCapture” to coordinate seizures.

“We’re joining with European Allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains,” Biden said.

However, the Biden administration has been reluctant to offer support for this measure from Congress.

U.S. presidents have often been defensive of what they see as Congressional encroachment on foreign policy, long the domain of the executive branch. Typically, presidents have been protective of the flexibility in how they can respond to foreign policy matters, particularly on sanctions. But sanction measures passed by Congress often carry strict criteria to amend and they require buy-in from lawmakers that can slow down diplomacy.

These debates are taking place one day before Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky is set to deliver a virtual address to members of Congress.

Zelensky, who has remained in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, has pressed Congress for more military assistance as well as a no-fly zone to take down Russian aircraft. Biden, and several senators in both parties, balked at this request for fear of inviting a nuclear confrontation with Russia.