Putin puts Nestlé and Auchan under external control in the largest Western seizure since 2023

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday, 17 September, placing the Russian assets of Nestlé and French retailer Auchan under temporary administration. The stakes were assigned to AO L.E.V. Menedzhment, a company registered in Moscow in 2024. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the two firms are “European companies, companies from unfriendly countries” and are “most actively involved in hostilities against our country” as well as in Ukrainian strikes on civilian economic infrastructure. He added that other “operational factors” were considered and that, for now, the decision is external management rather than a final sale.

That sequence is familiar. A 2023 law lets the Kremlin put businesses from states it lists as unfriendly under temporary administration. Danone and Carlsberg went through the same step in 2023. Both later passed to Russian owners, Danone in a process that put the assets under the control of a relative of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. “Temporary” in this statute has a record. It is the first move in a forced transfer.

What Nestlé still had in Russia

Nestlé, based in Vevey, kept six sites and more than 7,000 staff in Russia after many Western consumer firms left or wrote down their operations in 2022. The last year it broke out the market, 2021, Russia accounted for about 2 percent of group sales, or roughly 2 billion Swiss francs. The company makes coffee, pet food and infant formula there. On Friday it said it “takes note” of the decree, is assessing the situation, and will take “all necessary steps to protect its rights and ensure continuity of business operations in the interests of all stakeholders, particularly its employees.” Shares in Zurich fell about 2 percent.

The Swiss government said it was concerned and that it was supporting Nestlé in efforts to reverse the measure. Auchan, which lists about 230 stores and 30,000 staff in Russia, did not issue a detailed public comment on Friday.

Why these two names, and why now

Peskov’s charge that the companies are involved in hostilities is a political framing, not a description of coffee plants or hypermarkets. Nestlé and Auchan stayed when Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Western firms to leave. Staying did not protect them. The Kremlin is widening a nationalisation drive that has gathered speed as the war in Ukraine has entered its fifth year and as European states have tightened support for Kyiv.

Reuters called the decree the most aggressive action against Western firms since the 2023 Danone and Carlsberg seizures. Ownership of L.E.V. Menedzhment is not transparent in the public registry trail reported this week. That opacity is part of the method. The state names an administrator. The original owner loses operational control. A later sale, if it follows the 2023 pattern, happens at a price set inside Russia.

The balance-sheet and the precedent

For Nestlé the Russian slice is small at group level and large for the people inside the six factories. For Auchan the Russian store base is a material part of an international grocery business that already faces political scrutiny in France over its decision to remain. For other Western firms that still have assets in Russia the message is simpler than Peskov’s briefing. Remaining on the ground is no longer a hedge against expropriation. It is the condition that makes expropriation possible.

The next document to watch is not another Peskov sentence. It is any filing that transfers title from L.E.V. Menedzhment to a named Russian buyer. That is how “temporary administration” ended for Danone and Carlsberg. There is no public reason to assume a different ending this time.