Debate Heats Up in Washington Over Seizing of Russian Assets

The Belgian ambassador’s residence on Foxhall Road in Washington is guarded by a Bernese Mountain Dog and two cats that don’t get along. Graffith, the bigger homebody of the pair, is fond of butter and has the kind of wide-eyed expression typically reserved for mice and canines. But by all accounts, he gets along well with the dog.

It was here, on a snowy morning this month, over a breakfast of eggs Benedict with salmon, that the subject of seizing Russia’s sovereign assets came up. The Belgian ambassador to the US, Jean-Arthur Regibeau, said his country was “thinking about it, just like many people in Washington and elsewhere.”