India, April 20 -- While Washington has been urging the EU to seize the frozen Russian funds outright, the EU Commission favours a compromise, promoting a plan that would use only the accrued profits on the assets.

When President Vladimir Putin ordered the illegal invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, starting a war which he believed would be over in a few weeks, one of the early key measures taken by the international community was the immediate freezing of Russian assets abroad. These included a wide array of financial instruments and holdings, ranging from bank accounts, real estate properties, stocks, bonds, luxury and other assets held by Russian entities and oligarchs. Across the US, EU, Japan and Canada, the total assets am...