Russia warns Europe UK passes Rwanda Bill
RUSSIA - An ally of President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that Russia has already drafted legislation to retaliate if nearly US$300 billion of Russian assets were seized by the West and used to help Ukraine.
After Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States (US) and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia’s central bank and finance ministry, blocking around US$300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
Top officials in the US want to seize the assets to help support Ukraine, though some bankers and European officials are worried that simply taking the assets would create a dangerous precedent.
The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Saturday, including a Bill with a provision that would allow the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets, though the lion’s share of the assets are in Europe.
“We also have a prepared answer, Valentina Matviyenko, the Speaker of the Russian upper house of Parliament, was quoted as saying by State news agency RIA. “We have a draft law, which we are ready to consider immediately, on retaliatory measures.
“And the Europeans will lose more than we do,” Matviyenko, who is a member of Russia’s powerful Security Council, said.
Matviyenko did not give specifics on what the response would be to the seizing of Russian assets, which is still under discussion in the West.
One option being discussed by the West is to confiscate the income on the underlying assets without taking the actual asset itself.
LONDON - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised on Monday to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks as the upper house of Parliament finally passed required legislation, delayed for weeks by attempts to alter the plan.
Sunak said the government had booked commercial charter planes and trained staff to take migrants to Rwanda, a policy he hopes will boost his Conservative Party’s flagging fortunes before an election later this year.
The House of Lords had long refused to back the divisive legislation without additional safeguards, but eventually relented after Sunak said the government would force parliament to sit as late into Monday night as necessary to get it passed.
“No ifs, no buts. These flights are going to Rwanda,” Sunak told a news conference earlier on Monday.
Migrants
Tens of thousands of migrants many fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, the Middle East and Asia - have reached Britain in recent years by crossing the English Channel in small boats, on risky journeys organised by people-smuggling gangs.
Stopping the flow is a priority for the government, but critics say the plan to deport people to Rwanda rather than handle asylum seekers at home is inhumane. They cite concerns about the East African country’s own human rights record and the risk asylum seekers could face.
Sunak’s new law states that some existing United Kingdom (UK) human rights statutes will not apply to the scheme and Rwanda must be treated by British judges as a safe destination, in a bid to override a Supreme Court ruling which declared the scheme unlawful.