Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee introduced legislation that seeks to further isolate Russia from the international financial system in response to Russiaʻs invasion of Ukraine.
The legislative package encompasses several bills, including the Isolate Russian Government Officials Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion. This bill would exclude Russian government officials from attendance at the World Bank-IMF Spring and Annual Meetings, G-20 proceedings, Financial Action Task Force plenaries, and Annual General Meetings of the Bank for International Settlements.
“Vladimir Putin and his cronies have breached the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and declared war on an innocent people,” Wagner said. “These grievous violations will not stand, and Russian government officials must be completely and utterly isolated from the world stage during this unjust and unprovoked war. The Isolate Russian Governmental Officials Act will ensure Russian officials are excluded from major financial and intergovernmental forums and further restrict Russia’s inclusion in international meetings.”
U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-AR), the leading Republican on the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance, introduced the Russia and Belarus SDR Exchange Prohibition Act. This bill would deprive Russia and Belarus of emergency liquidity through the exchange of IMF Special Drawing Rights for hard currency. It would also prohibit the issuance of new SDRs for the Putin and Lukashenko dictatorships.
“I have been warning about the dangers of the IMF’s mistaken policy on Special Drawing Rights for more than three years, and I fear the worst-case scenario may come true: that Russia turns to Beijing to exchange its SDRs to finance their attempted invasion of Ukraine,” Hill said. “Unfortunately, Democrats have not only ignored repeated calls from Republicans to put guardrails on what these SDR funds can be used for, but incredulously continue to push for an additional SDR allocation of up to $2 trillion, which would send around $60 billion to the Kremlin and billions more to our adversaries like China, Iran, Belarus, and Syria. This would be a catastrophic mistake.”
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets, introduced the Russian Sovereign Debt Prohibition Act. This bill would prohibit secondary market dealings in Russian sovereign debt, regardless of the date a bond was issued.
“Today’s legislation will continue to place tighter restrictions on Russian debt and, more importantly, Russian banks,” Huizenga said. “The Russian Sovereign Debt Prohibition Act of 2022 cuts off another avenue for Vladimir Putin to finance his invasion of Ukraine by preventing U.S. financial institutions from buying and servicing Russian debt.”
Finally, the No Energy Revenues for Russian Hostilities Act would prohibit U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions related to Russian energy sales. It was introduced by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY).