Kennedy announces plan to utilize frozen Russian assets: “Ukraine can use that money”

Watch Kennedy’s comments
here
.
WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor:
“Now, for eight months, President Trump has tried to talk to President Putin in Russia—eight months. And for eight months, President Putin has made all kinds of promises, a lot of pretty words, a lot of play acting. And he’s done none of what he said he would do.”
. . .
“But in order to get peace, and to get Putin to negotiate seriously, we’re going to have to increase the costs and make the cost on him of prosecuting the war greater than the benefits of him being able to continue to do it.
“Now, how do we do that? One option is sanctions. . . . The problem with it is that you have some European countries—one is Hungary, another is Slovakia—they tend to be more aligned with Russia than anybody else in the European Union, and they buy oil from Russia, and it’s going to take a while to convince them to stop it. It’s going to take months.”
. . .
“So, if sanctions are not going to work for now, if it’s going to take several months for us to work that out, what can we do? Well, here’s what I think we ought to do. And I am introducing legislation to do this. . . . We’re going to seize Russian assets if our legislation passes, and we’re going to give those assets to Ukraine to prosecute the war.
“Here’s what I’m talking about. . . . There’s over $300 billion of cash that the United States and our European allies froze that belongs to Russia. And it’s been sitting there. It’s been invested basically in money markets, and we have been sending the interest to Ukraine to help them fight the war. But we’ve left the principle—the $300 billion—alone. We haven’t seized it. We’ve just frozen it.
“The time has come to seize it. . . . Ukraine can use that money to buy their own drones and to buy their own missiles. And Ukraine can use that money, not to kill Russian civilians, but Ukraine can use that money to buy missiles to take out every single refinery in Russia. Cut off their cash flow. Take out every single oil refinery in Russia.”
. . .
“Not a single taxpayer’s money from an American will be spent on this. This will all be Russian money. We’re going to level the playing field. We’re going to see what Mr. Putin is made of.”
. . .
“So, I hope the Senate will pass our bill. We’re going to move it. If you object to it, stand up in front of God and country and say so. But we’ve got to do something. And I can promise you with $300 billion of new capital—none of which will be American taxpayer money—Ukraine can buy some missiles that will get Mr. Putin’s attention.”
Watch Kennedy’s speech
here
.