Top Biden administration officials have spent the last year quietly trying to figure out how to divert billions of dollars in frozen Russian money to cash-starved Ukraine.

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But the rare maneuver would require buy-in from US allies in the Group of 7 (G7) to have a real impact, officials said. The vast majority of Russia’s central bank assets that were frozen by the G7 and the European Union are held by the EU, with the US only holding around $5 billion worth, officials told CNN.

It would also require Congress to pass a bill introduced last year, called the REPO Act, that gives the president authority to move forward with seizing Russian assets held in the US.

Senior Biden officials have been working both with G7 allies – which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the EU – and US lawmakers to refine the proposal, which rests on the idea that nations affected by Russia’s violations are permitted under international law to try to force Moscow back into compliance using the law of countermeasures.

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The US has emphasized to allies that the seizures would be done for a “very specific legal reason,” one of the officials told CNN, and not one that is so broad that it risks spooking financial institutions with assets held overseas—a key concern of some G7 allies, including Germany, which has led to some hesitation over the US proposal, officials added.

The US has also argued to allies that because Russia’s invasion has upended the international order, they have the right to engage in such countermeasures even though they are not directly at war with Russia.

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The legal case is necessary, officials explained, not only so that the US is on solid legal ground in the event that Moscow challenges the seizures in an international forum or in a US court, but also so that the US can convince a critical mass of allies to join in the effort.

The US has put a new twist on the law, however, by arguing that instead of returning the seized assets to Moscow if it comes back into compliance, the West can keep the money as a down payment of sorts toward what Russia will owe Ukraine anyway for its reconstruction.

What could possibly go wrong with this brilliant plan? /S