Kremlin seizes Nestlé’s assets in Russia as crackdown on private business grows

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

The Kremlin has moved to seize the Russian assets of Nestlé and French retailer Auchan amid a broader nationalization drive that has seen a surge in government takeovers of private companies.

Auchan and Nestlé are “European companies from unfriendly countries… currently actively involved in hostilities against us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, a day after a presidential decree announced the measures. Both companies’ assets have been placed under the temporary control of the domestic firm L.E.V Management, according to the decree.

Nestle, the maker of KitKat chocolates and Nescafe coffee, said it was assessing its options. The world’s largest food and beverage company still operates six sites in Russia, employing more than 7,000 people. Its sales in the country accounted for 2% of group sales in 2021, the last year it reported figures, equal to around 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion).

“Nestlé is committed to taking all necessary steps to protect its rights and ensure continuity of business operations in the interests of all stakeholders, particularly its employees,” the company said in a statement. Nestlé’s shares fell 2% in Zurich.

Auchan, which sells groceries, clothes, household goods and electronics, did not respond to a CNN request for comment. The retail chain has 230 physical stores and an online presence in Russia, employing 30,000 people, according to its website .

Russia has cemented its grip on foreign-owned firms since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022. A decree signed by President Vladimir Putin the following year gave the government power to place assets from countries deemed “unfriendly” under its temporary control. Not long afterwards it seized control of French yogurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiaries.

Natalia Kolesnikova/Anadolu/Getty Images

Empty podiums, prizes for e-voting, no opposition: Russians head to the polls amid intensifying war in Ukraine

More than 1,000 companies exited Russia voluntarily in the month’s following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nestlé drastically reduced the range of products it sold in Russia after the start of the Ukraine war, though the company has drawn criticism, including from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, over its decision to continue doing business in the country. Nestlé has defended the decision to supply “important food” to the population, saying it does not make a profit from its “significantly scaled back” Russian operations.

The Kremlin’s campaign to take control of private enterprise has not stopped with foreign-owned firms. It is increasingly tightening the screws on domestic companies too, redistributing assets on a scale not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office “has been aggressively pursuing a suite of nationalizations, reopening privatization deals from the 1990s on the grounds that they violated the country’s economic sovereignty,” Alexandra Prokopenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times Friday.

Putin’s United Russia Party is expected to win an overwhelming majority in elections for the State Duma this weekend, the first nationwide parliamentary elections since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

– CNN’s Anna Chernova and Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

在更广泛的国有化浪潮中，克里姆林宫采取行动，没收雀巢和法国零售商欧尚在俄罗斯的资产，政府对私营企业的接管数量激增。

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周五告诉记者，欧尚和雀巢是“来自不友好国家的欧洲公司……目前正积极参与针对我们的敌对行动”。此前一天，总统令宣布了相关措施。根据该法令，这两家公司的资产已被暂时置于俄罗斯国内公司LEV Management的控制之下。

雀巢公司（KitKat巧克力和雀巢咖啡的生产商）表示正在评估各种方案。这家全球最大的食品饮料公司目前在俄罗斯仍运营着六个工厂，雇佣了7000多名员工。2021年，雀巢在俄罗斯的销售额占集团总销售额的2%，约合20亿瑞士法郎（24亿美元），这是该公司公布数据的最新年份。

雀巢在一份声明中表示：“公司致力于采取一切必要措施，保护自身权益，并确保业务持续运营，以维护所有利益相关者，特别是员工的利益。” 雀巢股价在苏黎世下跌2%。

欧尚是一家销售食品杂货、服装、家居用品和电子产品的零售连锁企业，该公司未回复CNN的置评请求。据其官网显示，欧尚在俄罗斯拥有230家实体店和线上销售渠道，员工人数达3万人。

自2022年乌克兰战争爆发以来，俄罗斯加强了对外国企业的控制。次年，普京总统签署法令，赋予政府权力，将被视为“不友好”国家的资产置于其临时控制之下。不久之后，俄罗斯便接管了法国酸奶制造商达能和丹麦啤酒制造商嘉士伯在俄罗斯的子公司。

娜塔莉亚·科列斯尼科娃/阿纳多卢/盖蒂图片社

空荡荡的讲台，电子投票的奖品，没有反对派：俄罗斯民众在乌克兰战事升级之际前往投票站

在俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰后的几个月里，超过 1000 家公司自愿撤离俄罗斯。

乌克兰战争爆发后，雀巢大幅缩减了在俄罗斯的销售产品范围。然而，该公司因继续在俄罗斯开展业务而受到包括乌克兰总统泽连斯基在内的各方批评。雀巢则辩称，其向俄罗斯民众提供“重要食品”的决定是为了保障他们的安全，并表示其在俄罗斯的业务规模已大幅缩减，并未从中盈利。

克里姆林宫控制私营企业的行动并未止步于外资企业。它也日益收紧对国内企业的控制，以苏联解体以来前所未有的规模重新分配资产。

卡内基俄罗斯欧亚中心高级研究员亚历山德拉·普罗科彭科周五在《纽约时报》的一篇评论文章中写道，俄罗斯总检察长办公室“一直在积极推行一系列国有化措施，以侵犯国家经济主权为由，重新开启了上世纪90年代的私有化交易”。

普京领导的统一俄罗斯党预计将在本周末举行的国家杜马选举中赢得压倒性多数，这是自2022年入侵乌克兰以来举行的首次全国性议会选举。

– CNN 的 Anna Chernova 和 Victoria Butenko 对报道亦有贡献。