WTH is Going On with Seizing Russian Assets? Stephen Rademaker Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 29 February 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two years ago, at the start of the war in Ukraine, $300 billion in Russian assets were frozen in Western banks. The assumption behind Western economic pressure on Russia was that sanctions and seizures of oligarchs’ funds would have a chilling effect on both Russia’s economy and the pursuit of the war in Ukraine. They have not. As a result, for only the second time in history, the United States is considering seizing Russian assets. Congress, in the lead, has brought the Biden administration around. The President needs new authorities to move forward. But seizing the frozen $300 billion – only $5 billion of which is in the United States – and re-distributing it to Ukraine for reconstruction and other reparation efforts is fraught. Will the Euros go along? Will this radical change affect how states approach seizing aggressors’ assets? Perhaps more importantly, is the Biden administration’s signal of approval for the policy just talk, or will Washington finally pull together measures that hit Russia where it hurts?
Stephen Rademaker, currently Senior of Counsel at Covington and Burling LLP, has wide-ranging experience working on national security issues in the White House, the State Department, and the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Serving as an Assistant Secretary of State from 2002 through 2006, he headed at various times three bureaus of the State Department, including the Bureau of Arms Control and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. Previously, he served as General Counsel of the Peace Corps, Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel, and as Deputy Legal Adviser to the National Security Council.
Download the transcript here.
Read the WTH Substack here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.1 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. Hotels gone on. |
| 0:01.0 | Who in God's name knows what it's all about. |
| 0:28.9 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:30.7 | I'm Mark Tiesin. |
| 0:31.7 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.1 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:35.4 | Mark, what the hell is going on? |
| 0:39.4 | What the hell is going on is we're talking about the $300 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen since the war in Ukraine began |
| 0:45.6 | in Western banks here in the United States and in Europe and in other places around the world |
| 0:50.7 | and what to do with them. There's legislation in Congress called the Repo Act, |
| 0:55.1 | which would authorize the president of the United States to seize those assets and to give them |
| 1:00.0 | to Ukraine, to use for whatever its purposes are to reconstruct the country. I think we possibly |
| 1:06.3 | could be used for military purposes as well. And so we decided this is a really complicated issue. There's |
| 1:13.0 | arguments for and against this. We're in favor of it. But we decided to invite the best international |
| 1:18.4 | lawyer we know. And the best international lawyer we know also happens to be married to my co-host, |
| 1:24.5 | Danielle Fletka, Stephen Radamaker. So we're having Danny's husband on the podcast. |
| 1:29.7 | So we'll give you a little insight into what the dinner table conversations are like at the |
| 1:33.9 | Pletka Radamaker household. |
| 1:35.7 | Okay, this is actually what our dinner table conversations are like. |
| 1:39.2 | You are such geeks. |
| 1:43.4 | But, look, the reason we wanted to talk about this is because the question of spending |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AEI Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of AEI Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.