Russia’s friends beg EU to leave frozen assets alone

For the time being, any plan to seize Europe's frozen Russian assets and use the money to help Ukraine is on the back burner. Western EU countries in particular are fierce in their opposition for fear of legal ramifications and the potential destabilization of the eurozone.

But with Washington and London keen ― as much as anything because tight budgets and messy domestic politics mean a different way of funding Ukraine's flagging war effort and reconstruction is an attractive option ― and the matter up for discussion at next month's meeting of G7 finance ministers, the countries that don't consider Vladimir Putin an enemy aren't complacent.

They have already seen the EU put forward a more limited proposal to skim off the profits accrued by investing the assets, worth about €2.5-3 billion per year, with 90 percent of the proceeds going to buy weapons for Ukraine.

And this might feed into the countries' lobbying motivation, too. As much as fearing a precedent, they could be acting on Putin's behalf and not wanting the EU to help Ukraine on the battlefield.

“I would admit that the Russians could have asked their friends to create this fuss,” said a senior diplomat from a non-EU country.

If so, these countries' lobbying would follow a similar playbook to the one seen since the start of the Ukraine conflict where governments which didn't necessarily come out in support for Russia did do some of Moscow's bidding nonetheless.