On Wednesday, European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that there was no consensus among EU leaders on granting Ukraine a "reparations loan" backed up by frozen Russian central bank assets, rather than by revenues generated from them.
He added that von der Leyen's plan to use Russian assets is a "legal attempt to do an illegal action." Sakwa noted that large Western business assets remain in Russia, and their owners cannot withdraw them from the country.
Sakwa said that a number of Western business representatives had tried to maintain normal relations with Russia, and expressed the opinion that confiscating their assets in response to the EU's actions would be a mistake.