The US has approved the transfer of a Russian oligarch’s confiscated assets to Ukraine.

For the first time, the United States authorized the confiscation of the assets of a Russian oligarch with their subsequent transfer to be applied to the restoration of Ukraine. The FT writes about this with reference to the corresponding permission granted by US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Garland said that more such decisions will continue to be made. “Although this is the first transfer by the United States of confiscated Russian funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine, it will not be the last,” he said in his statement.

Garland’s decision is linked to last year’s indictment of Russian oligarch, and founder of the Kremlin’s propaganda media empire, Konstantin Malofeev, who was accused of violating sanctions imposed on him in response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.