On December 22, a very important event for Ukraine took place in America: the US Senate adopted an amendment allowing the transfer of seized assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. Many doubted that Ukraine would receive money for restoration, but the passage of this amendment by the Senate promises: the money will be.

It is worth noting that the United States began working on this issue since February, immediately after the start of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine.. Already in March, the Biden administration provided the US Treasury (namely the Office of Foreign Assets Control) with a list of Russian and Kremlin elites, oligarchs, political figures and Russian national security leaders who supported Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal and illegal decision to invade Ukraine..

A list of elites and businessmen who are accomplices and intermediaries of the Russian regime was determined, including three closest family members of President Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov; Russian tycoon and Kremlin insider Viktor Vekselberg; members of the board of VTB Bank, which fell under the sanctions. In addition, the list includes 12 members of the Russian State Duma, including Vyacheslav Volodin, who is also a permanent member of the Russian Security Council..

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The Treasury holds Russian employees and businessmen responsible for facilitating Putin's unjustified and unprovoked war, said Janet L.. Yellen.

Australia, Canada and Europe also imposed sanctions on Russian officials and businessmen and froze their assets.. For Ukraine, the ability to use these assets to restore destroyed and damaged property is of the greatest importance.. And the amendment, adopted by the US Senate on December 22, allows the transfer of these assets to Ukraine. That's why she's so important.

What is the value of \?

To search for the assets of oligarchs and officials, a special multinational task force was created in March 2022, which blocked or seized assets worth more than $ 30 billion.. owned by Russian oligarchs and officials.

For the sake of this, not even the entire list of defendants who were under sanctions was made public immediately, information about them was disclosed with the imposition of arrests and sanctions..

Now these assets must be transferred to the Ukrainian people to pay off losses from Russia's aggression in Ukraine. The amount is considerable, and there is hope that it will be used to compensate citizens for damaged and lost property, in particular housing.

Compensation Bill To this end 24. 03. 2022, a group of deputies submitted bill No. 7198 “On compensation for damage and destruction of certain categories of real estate objects due to hostilities, terrorist acts, sabotage caused by the military aggression of the Russian Federation”, which defines the principles for providing compensation for damage and destruction of certain categories of real estate objects. The bill was voted in the first reading 01. 04. 2022, but there was a lot of criticism against him, in particular, about providing compensation in the form of square meters, so many amendments were submitted for the second reading.

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What is proposed for the second reading?

The main thing in our case is to replace the procedure for paying compensation from square meters to their (square meters) cost by issuing housing certificates to apartment owners. Owners of manor-type houses, garden and country houses are invited to provide compensation by transferring funds to the current account of the recipient with a special mode of use. Of course, a special regime will be used to restore a destroyed house.

The cost of a housing certificate will be determined depending on the number of lost square meters, and the cost of 1 sq.. m will be determined on the basis of the Regulation, which will be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. According to experts, this will be the market value of 1 sq.. m of lost housing before the start of military aggression, but, unfortunately, the bill does not provide any guidance on this issue, shifting responsibility for such an important decision to the Cabinet of Ministers.

In addition, it is not clear whether the cost of 1 sq.. m loss of finishes, furniture and other costs that make the apartment out of the walls "

And the most important thing is that the cost of 1 sq.. m within even one apartment building varies. It is always higher in small apartments and lower in large ones.. It can fluctuate depending on the floor or even on which side the windows face.. Why move from the cost of an apartment to 1 sq.. m, and then - again to the cost of the apartment, it is not clear. In fact, if there is a destroyed apartment, then the owner has the right to reimburse the full cost of the apartment, and it is desirable to determine its value immediately.

In addition, the owner is entitled to reimbursement for the period between loss of housing and receipt of compensation. The law is generally silent about this period, and why?

A positive assessment deserves the opportunity to buy an apartment in any region and district, as well as the opportunity to apply without reference to the location of the apartment or the applicant's stay.

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But the bill contains a restriction on the possible sale of an apartment, which was purchased as compensation for the destroyed one, in the form of a ban on its sale for five years.. The main legal department of the apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada notes that this is a violation of the constitutional rights of citizens. What can not be disagreed with. Well, let's think: a citizen lost property due to the war. The United States seized and transferred to Ukraine assets that we should use to compensate for the losses of Ukrainian citizens, and for some reason Ukraine imposes restrictions on the money lost by a citizen and compensated by America at the expense of the assets of Russian oligarchs. It would be funny if it wasn't sad.

Many are generally sure that compensation should be provided without restrictions, because this property belonged to a citizen. And he lost it. However, the version prepared for the second reading is still better than the previous one, and people would like it to be voted on as soon as possible and start the process of forming registers, collecting applications and forming relevant commissions.

Unfortunately, the draft law retained the provision on creating a queue of those who “ran” faster to the Center for the provision of administrative services, where you can apply, and therefore, immediately after the entry into force of the law, there will be huge queues, because about. And where there are queues, there is always corruption....

However, it is not yet clear how exactly the assets of Russian oligarchs and officials will turn into money: who will sell them - Ukraine or the United States? And how quickly Ukraine will be able to use this money.

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Read more articles by Lyudmila Simonova at the link.