The United States has been able to transfer more than $5 million of seized Russian assets to Europe in support of Ukraine’s defense, U.S. officials said Thursday. But the process of justifying each confiscation of alleged illicit assets in court is a painstaking one by law, playing out over years.”The Justice Department is more committed than ever to cutting off the flow of illegal funds that are fueling Putin’s war and to holding accountable those who continue to enable it,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.The U.S. and other allies of Ukraine had hoped to cripple and isolate Russia’s economy with a succession of sanctions targeting its financial sector and sources of revenue, including oil sales. But Putin has worked with Iran and others to blunt the impact of the international sanctions, so that the International Monetary Fund reports Russia’s economy growing at an unexpectedly healthy pace.Also Thursday, an indictment was unsealed in Washington, D.C., charging Vladislav Osipov with bank fraud connected to operating a 255-foot luxury yacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Osipov, a Russian national, lives in Switzerland. The State Department has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
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