President Vladimir Putin last week signed a decree temporarily transferring control of a major canned food manufacturer to the Russian government.
In April 2023, Putin authorized the government to seize the assets in Russia of foreign companies from countries the Kremlin considers “unfriendly,” a move widely seen as retaliation for the West’s freezing of about $300 billion in Russian state assets.
Putin’s latest decree orders the seizure of holding company Glavproduct, several of its subsidiaries and three canning plants. The government will also take control of Glavproduct’s parent company, Promselkhozinvest, which is owned by the U.S.-registered Universal Beverage Company.
Universal Beverage is owned by Russian-American businessman Leonid Smirnov, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and returned to Russia in the 1990s, according to business daily Kommersant.
The newspaper described Glavproduct as Russia’s leading canned food producer, with more than 500 brands of canned meat, condensed milk and canned fish and vegetables. Temporary control of the seized assets will be overseen by Russia’s Federal Agency for State Property Management, Rosimushchestvo, according to Putin’s decree.
The United States and the European Union blocked or seized more than $350 billion in state and personal assets as part of Western sanctions over Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. EU member states agreed in May to use billions of euros in proceeds from the frozen assets to help arm Ukraine and fund its postwar reconstruction, reports The Moscow Times
