The US Congress is promoting a bill on the use of Russian assets to pay Kiev for Lend-Lease.

The head of the House Foreign Policy Committee, Michael McCaul, who presented the initiative, believes that this “will be a very popular idea.”

“We discussed with (Republican senator.

- RT

) Lindsey Graham a loan program for direct government assistance (to Ukraine.

- RT

).

I think there would be widespread support for such an idea,” McCall told CNN.

McCall proposed action by formalizing the assistance as a loan, as well as through the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act (REPO).

According to this document, the American president must require US financial institutions to notify the country's Ministry of Finance about any Russian sovereign assets held in such organizations.

The bill also provides for the possibility of using assets confiscated from the Russian Central Bank to restore Ukraine, provide it with humanitarian assistance, as well as for “other purposes.”

“The President may seize any such assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Confiscated funds and income from liquidated property must be contributed to the Ukraine support fund created in accordance with this bill,” the document says.

The initiative also instructs the head of the White House to strive, together with foreign partners, to create an international mechanism to provide compensation to Kyiv through the use of Russian sovereign assets confiscated by US allies and a support fund for Ukraine.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is already "working closely" with McCaul to find a way to develop an aid package for Ukrainian authorities that could include the confiscation of Russian assets and transferring them to Kyiv, CNN reports.

“The efforts of McCall and Johnson have always been aimed at introducing the bill for consideration by the end of March or beginning of April,” the channel reported.

For his part, McCaul expressed confidence that Johnson will soon introduce such a bill for discussion.

“I believe he will,” McCall responded when asked.

  • Meeting of the lower house of the US Congress

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Rod Lamkey

According to CNN, Republicans in the House of Representatives have prepared a version of a plan to help Ukraine in the form of loans, or Lend-Lease, and not grant aid, as has been the case until now.

This idea is supported by a number of representatives of this political force.

Several senior Republican senators told CNN they are willing to send support to Ukraine in the form of some kind of loan rather than a direct aid package.

“I'm comfortable with that,” said Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee from Mississippi.

“I think we will do the right thing and support our allies.”

And we will do this in our national interests, in many ways in the interests of American taxpayers.”

In turn, Republican Senator from Iowa Joni Ernst said that the House of Representatives needs to act.

“We will persistently strive for this (providing assistance to Ukraine through loans, or Lend-Lease.

- RT

),” Ernst said.

As Bloomberg states, Republican congressmen are intensifying work on “their own package on Ukraine” and the idea of ​​seizing Russian assets “to pay for billions of dollars in military aid” is gaining more and more support in the party.

Earlier, Johnson told reporters at a Republican retreat in West Virginia that the House package "may not look exactly the same as the Senate supplemental appropriations bill" and that congressional Republicans are "currently exploring all possible options."

Credit history

Let us remind you that on February 13, the US Senate approved a bill including the allocation of aid to Ukraine in the amount of $60.1 billion, and the Republican minority leader in the upper house of Congress, Mitch McConnell, in an interview with the Politico newspaper, called on Mike Johnson to submit this document for a vote in the House of Representatives.

However, the next day, Johnson announced that no one would be able to force the lower house to follow the Senate in passing a bill including aid to Ukraine.

The speaker recalled that most Republicans oppose the adoption of such a document because it is not aimed at protecting the US border.

  • Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson

  • © Shawn Thew/Pool via AP

As NBC News reported on March 9, representatives of the Republican Party in Congress are developing an alternative package of assistance to Kyiv, part of which could be provided in the form of a loan.

Later, on NBC News, American Senator Graham called for an end to gratuitous assistance to the Kyiv regime and, instead, to provide support only in the form of loans.

According to him, the idea of ​​"giving and not getting back should be taken off the agenda."

Graham also said that the United States needs to think about American citizens, not allies, given the country's national debt of about $34 trillion.

"Trying to find balance"

According to American political scientist Malek Dudakov, Johnson and his supporters in the Republican Party are now trying to find at least some option that would simultaneously satisfy the lobbyists for the allocation of aid to Ukraine and would not cause indignation from the Republican electorate, which is already tired of supporting Kyiv.

“Republican supporters for the most part favor solving domestic American problems first, including the worsening migration crisis.

Now representatives of the Republican Party in the lower house are considering several options at once.

The first is to issue loans to Ukraine, that is, not just give money, but with the requirement that it return it.

For example, the Lend-Lease system.

Option two is the same loans, but secured by Russian assets.

De facto, no one will hand them over, but assistance will be provided on their collateral.

And if Ukraine does not return the funds in the future, the United States will be able to confiscate these assets for its own benefit,” Dudakov explained in a conversation with RT.

However, he considers such a scheme “extremely illegal.”

Dudakov doubted that the bill, which would involve the use of frozen Russian assets, could be passed through the House of Representatives.

“Hearings on all these issues will start in late March or early April.

The money in the new Republican bill, which they are now drawing up, will most likely be much less than what the White House is asking for - about $60 billion. And I admit that the story of allocating funds for the needs of Ukraine may drag on,” says the analyst .

As American political scientist Dmitry Drobnitsky noted in his RT commentary, Johnson and his supporters will be able to approach the issue of allocating aid to Ukraine in the lower house only in April.

From his point of view, the idea of ​​​​initiating a separate bill to support Kyiv did not arise by chance.

“The Speaker of the House of Representatives really supports the idea of ​​​​providing loans or credits to the Kyiv regime.

It is speculated that this kind of repayable financing could include McCaul's proposal to use Russian frozen assets for Ukraine's benefit.

De facto, this will mean their confiscation, but delayed in time.

However, this is not just illegal, it is robbery,” says the analyst.

  • American military aid for Ukraine

  • © AP Photo/Alex Brandon

However, Mike Johnson even allows this option, since the number of opponents of any assistance to Kyiv is growing among the Republicans, Drobnitsky is sure.

“The speaker is trying to find a balance.

On the one hand, he is trying to demonstrate to the hawks that he is trying with all his might to provide at least some help to Ukraine.

But at the same time, among those Republicans who no longer want to help the corrupt Kyiv regime for free, Johnson is promoting the idea that there will no longer be any free distribution of benefits for Ukraine,” the expert concluded.