Putin puts Nestlé and Auchan’s Russian businesses under temporary administration

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on 17 September placing the Russian businesses of Nestlé and Auchan under temporary external administration. Control passed to a Moscow company called L.E.V. Management, registered in 2024 and barely visible in public records. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that both parent firms sit in countries Russia lists as unfriendly. He said no further decision had been taken beyond external management.

The decree amends the list first created by Presidential Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023. That law lets the state take temporary control of assets from unfriendly jurisdictions. In practice the same tool was used on Danone and Carlsberg in 2023. Both later left Russia through sales at prices the sellers did not choose.

What was transferred

Vedomosti, citing the published text, reported that L.E.V. Management received 99.99858 percent of OOO Auchan, held by the French vehicle Sogepar, and a sliver held by a minority owner. On the Swiss side the decree covers 67.44 percent of Nestlé Kuban held by Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. and 32.56 percent held by Nestlé Deutschland AG. Nestlé Russia is split 84.082 percent and 15.918 percent between the same two Nestlé entities.

The same instrument also reached a 0.007 percent Adeo stake in Le Monlid, the Russian company behind the former Leroy Merlin stores now branded Lemana PRO, plus affiliates of logistics groups BATI and FM Logistic. The Nestlé and Auchan blocks are the large prizes.

Auchan entered Russia in 2002. At the end of 2025 it employed 24,236 people and ran 229 stores. First-half 2026 sales in the country were 127 billion roubles, about $1.5 billion. Unlike most Western grocers it never announced an exit after February 2022. Nestlé stayed too, but it stopped fresh investment, pulled KitKat and Nesquik off the local list, and said it did not intend to book a profit in Russia.

Why these two, and why now

Kommersant reported in mid-August that a firm named KS Logistika had asked the Kremlin to put five Nestlé legal entities under temporary administration. The paper's source cited a halt in exports of Russian-made goods and a lack of plans to expand capacity. Peskov on Friday did not confirm that petition. He pointed instead to the fact that Switzerland and France are on the unfriendly list and that European states are, in Moscow's language, actively involved in military action against Russia.

Nestlé, based in Vevey, said it had taken note of the decree and was assessing the situation. It said it would take all necessary steps to protect its rights and keep the business running. A spokesman declined further comment. Auchan declined to comment. Ownership of L.E.V. Management has not been disclosed.

The move is the largest action against Western consumer firms since the Danone and Carlsberg seizures. Those files followed a pattern. Temporary administration first. Then a Russian buyer. Then a price that reflected the seller's weak bargaining position. Staff and factories kept working. The brand on the packet often stayed the same for a time. The cash left the original owner.

What it changes for companies that stayed

Firms that left Russia in 2022 took write-downs and political credit in their home markets. Firms that stayed argued they were protecting workers and food supply. Friday's decree tells the second group that remaining does not buy safety. It can become the reason a local competitor, or a state-linked manager, asks the Kremlin to step in.

President Donald Trump has spoken in recent weeks about restarting commercial deals with Moscow. The Nestlé and Auchan files sit awkwardly next to that talk. They show that Russian law still treats Western operating companies as assets that can be parked, then reassigned, when the political weather changes. For the two firms the next document that matters is not a press statement. It is whatever contract L.E.V. Management signs, or is told to sign, once temporary starts to look permanent.