“Orthodox” oligarch and Tsargrad owner Konstantin Malofeyev held funds in US banks, but the money was seized and transferred to support Ukrainian veterans.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation made the claim, according to ASTRA.
“By decision of the US authorities, funds held in Malofeyev’s accounts at US financial institutions were unlawfully seized. The appropriated funds were subsequently used to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the agency claims.
The US Department of Justice, however, states that Malofeyev’s $5.4 million was transferred to the US Department of State to support Ukrainian veterans, rather than directly to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In April 2022, Malofeyev said he had no assets in the West because he had been under sanctions since 2014. He made the statement in response to US allegations that he had attempted to circumvent Western sanctions.
LF Commentary.
The significance of the Malofeyev case lies not so much in the amount confiscated as in the precedent it established. His funds became the first case in which US authorities used a new mechanism allowing confiscated assets belonging to sanctioned individuals to be directed towards assistance for Ukraine. The mechanism could therefore potentially be applied to other Russian assets, provided there are legal grounds for their confiscation.
The choice of Malofeyev for the first such case appears symbolic. The businessman, who emphasises his Orthodox Christian identity and is known as a major sponsor of projects linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, has been under US sanctions since 2014. US authorities linked the sanctions to his financial support for pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and identified him as one of the sources of funding for groups advocating the separation of Ukrainian territories.
The Malofeyev case therefore marked a fundamentally new stage. Assets linked to sanctions violations no longer have to remain merely frozen indefinitely. Following judicial forfeiture, they can be converted into funds to assist a state that has suffered from Russian aggression. Nor has this mechanism remained a one-off experiment. In 2024, the United States channelled a further approximately $500,000 in confiscated Russian funds through Estonia to support Ukraine.
As LF reported, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Konstantin Malofeyev, founder of the Tsargrad media group and an Orthodox oligarch, presented scenarios for Russia’s future through 2050 in which the use of nuclear weapons was described as the “best-case scenario.” The “good scenario” envisages the annexation of Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv, Russia becoming the undisputed global leader, and the collapse of the EU.
We previously reported that Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev would lecture second-year students at Moscow State University’s Faculty of Political Science.
