Putin Puts European Firms’ Russian Assets Under State Control

Vladimir Putin has placed assets belonging to several foreign companies in Russia under temporary management, while saying Russian authorities are trying to create “favourable conditions” for European businesses that remain in the country. The measures put the state between companies and control of their local assets; the Kremlin says the targeted firms come from countries it considers “unfriendly.”

Putin presented the policy as an answer to companies scaling down under pressure from Western European governments. “When some companies were leaving our country under pressure from Western European governments, our friends from those countries were almost in tears... Some of them are still operating here, and we are trying to create favourable conditions for them,” he said. That’s his account; the decrees and the transfer of assets to temporary management are the concrete state actions behind it.

The State Takes the Keys

In September, Putin signed a decree placing Russian assets belonging to Swiss food company Nestlé, US packaging manufacturer Aptar, German retailer Metro, French retailer Auchan, logistics company FM Logistic and Lemana PRO, formerly Leroy Merlin, under temporary management. The state placed these companies’ Russian assets under appointed control by decree. The Kremlin described the listed firms as representing “unfriendly” countries “currently most actively involved in military actions against Russia”, including “strikes on economic infrastructure facilities”. The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet, reported that explanation.

The explanation names countries and alleged military actions; the decree names companies and their assets. That distinction matters. The targeted businesses operate in food, packaging, retail and logistics, while the stated justification rests on the Kremlin’s categorisation of their countries of origin. The source doesn’t detail the assets’ value, the practical terms of temporary management or how the companies can challenge the measures.

Decrees, Claims and Corporate Property

On 17 September, Putin signed a decree placing the Russian assets of Auchan, Nestlé and the chain formerly known in Russia as Leroy Merlin under temporary state administration. The article also says Putin signed a decree placing Metro’s Russian assets under “temporary management.” In mid-October, Russia seized the Russian assets of French flooring manufacturer Tarkett, described as one of the global leaders in the industry. The account gives no year for those dates, and none is needed to describe the reported sequence.

Putin’s language casts some European firms as friends who stayed, while state measures have taken control of assets linked to companies from countries Russia calls unfriendly. His press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, later said the assets were seized because their owners were based in European countries Russia considers “unfriendly.” That statement makes the stated basis explicit: the owners’ location, as the Russian government classifies it.

The account doesn’t say what compensation, if any, the companies will receive, who will run the assets or how long temporary management will last. It also gives no response from the companies named. What it does record is a direct exercise of state power over corporate property, justified through a political label and paired with a promise of favourable conditions for firms that remain. Companies are left to operate under terms the authorities set.