Reporter’s Notebook: Making Russia pay for Ukraine invasion

One way or another, realistically or not, there is a certain expectation that Russia will have to pay for what it has destroyed in Ukraine. You break it, you pay for it. That reconstruction, however, is a way off. There is no point rebuilding what may be bombed again. As long as the war rages, talk of reconstructing Ukraine seems somewhat theoretical. But arming it is urgent business if Kyiv is to continue to claw back territory lost and defend itself. Bill Browder thinks Russia needs to pick up that tab, too.

“We’re in a situation now where people in the West are starting to complain about sending money to Ukraine for defense and for financial assistance when there are so many economic problems in other parts of the world and at home,” Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign and author of the book “Freezing Order,” tells Fox News.  

“The easy solution to this problem is that there are $350 billion of Russian Central Bank hard currency reserves that have been frozen. And so it makes total logical sense that that money should be used not just for reconstruction of Ukraine but for the defense of Ukraine. In my opinion, this is probably the single most important factor that will determine the outcome of the war.”

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As such, Browder considers the idea of having frozen Russian Central Bank assets go to arms for Ukraine an “elegant” solution to the cost of conflict crisis, and he’s on a mission to make it happen. Aid to Ukraine has become a political football in Washington, as another disputed budget deadline looms amidst fears of a possible government shutdown before year-end. Republicans want President Biden to stop writing “blank checks” and have been crying out for greater oversight of the money spent on Kyiv. Some would like to see those dollars instead spent on America’s southern border. Browder says any drag on Ukraine’s military momentum now—any clipping of its wings—would be catastrophic.

“If Ukraine…