Russia has singled out European firms in its latest drive to strip foreign owners of the right to manage their Russian assets, government and company sources said, with the Kremlin accusing the European Union of involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Russia placed the assets of Swiss food giant Nestlé, German wholesaler Metro AG and French retailer Auchan under temporary management this month.
“The time has come for asymmetric measures. Let them think about what measures they are taking and what sanctions they are introducing,” a senior government source with direct knowledge of the measures told Reuters.
Asked which companies might be the next targets and whether the Russian units of Italian bank UniCredit and Austrian lender Raiffeisen could be placed under temporary management, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “Let them be scared.”
A Russian corporate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, accused European firms of deliberately stifling the development of their Russian units, ultimately harming the Russian economy.
A senior manager with a European company, part of a shrinking community of foreign businesses operating in Russia, told Reuters that European businesses expected the status quo to be maintained in the immediate future.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday the decisions were driven by “the increasing level of involvement of these unfriendly countries in direct battlefield hostilities” against Russia, but suggested the moves were “reversible”.
“For now, we do not see any grounds for a reversal. We do not hear any reasonable voices calling for dialogue or for efforts to rectify the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
