The Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs (REPO) Task Force was announced on 26 February 2022, two days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and formally launched on 16–17 March 2022. Its founding members are the finance ministries and justice/home affairs authorities of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States), plus Australia and the European Commission.
The task force coordinates the practical enforcement of sanctions against individuals and entities designated in connection with the war in Ukraine. Rather than imposing new designations itself, REPO pools intelligence, financial-investigations capacity, and legal tools across jurisdictions to:
- Locate assets of sanctioned persons held abroad, including real estate, yachts, aircraft, art, and accounts held through shell companies or family members acting as proxies.
- Freeze or immobilize those assets under each member's domestic sanctions regime.
- Seize and, where domestic law permits, forfeit assets connected to sanctions evasion or other criminal conduct.
- Share typologies on circumvention, including third-country transshipment and use of cryptocurrency.
In its first-anniversary joint statement (March 2023), REPO members reported having blocked or frozen approximately $58 billion in sanctioned Russians' assets, in addition to the immobilization of roughly $300 billion in Central Bank of Russia reserves handled separately through national measures and the EU. By March 2024, the cumulative figure cited had risen further.
On the US side, REPO works alongside the Justice Department's Task Force KleptoCapture, while EU members coordinate through the Freeze and Seize Task Force established by the European Commission. High-profile actions linked to REPO cooperation include the seizure of the yachts Amadea (linked to Suleiman Kerimov) and Tango (linked to Viktor Vekselberg) in 2022. REPO is widely cited as a model for cross-border sanctions enforcement, though critics note that converting frozen assets into forfeited funds available for Ukraine reconstruction remains legally and politically contested.
Example
In June 2022, Fiji's courts authorized the handover of the superyacht *Amadea* to the United States under a REPO Task Force-coordinated operation, citing its links to sanctioned oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
Frequently asked questions
The G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US), plus Australia and the European Commission, represented by their finance and justice/home-affairs ministries.
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