Western companies that left the Russian market after the start of the special operation have recorded losses of more than $103 billion since February 2022. It was expected that their exit would help damage the Russian economy, but the Russian authorities took advantage of the situation.
This is reported by the New York Times, referring to the companies’ financial reports. As the newspaper notes, the departure of hundreds of foreign companies was supposed to help “strangle” the Russian economy, but now Moscow controls almost all company exits from the Russian business.
The publication is confident that Putin personally dictates the conditions to foreign companies and, in some cases, personally signs the sales agreement.
The NYT cites the example of the sale of the Dutch brewing company Heineken: in August 2023, 100% of Heineken’s shares in Russia passed into the hands of United Heineken Breweries LLC for 1 euro.
In addition, this summer Vladimir Putin signed the transfer of the Russian business of the Danish Carlsberg to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency. This week, the head of the Ministry of Finance, Anton Siluanov, clarified that we are talking specifically about temporary management and that there are no plans to nationalize the Carlsberg business.
Photo: Unsplash
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
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