Putin put Russian assets of French supermarket chain Auchan and Swiss food giant Nestlé under temporary management. Neither company had left Russia after the full-scale invasion.

Filed 1h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: gdsteam · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing the Russian assets of France's Auchan and Switzerland's Nestlé under the temporary management of a company called L.E.V. Management. A small stake tied to Leroy Merlin's Russian operations, now branded Lemana PRO, was also swept into the same decree.

Neither Auchan nor Nestlé left Russia after the 2022 invasion, though Nestlé scaled back, halting investment and some brand sales while saying it did not plan to profit there. Reports beforehand suggested the move could be a first step toward an outright ownership transfer, driven by complaints about halted exports and stalled expansion.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Sticking around in a war zone hoping to ride things out apparently does not buy much goodwill from the man running the war. The companies stayed to protect their assets and the assets got taken anyway, just more slowly. There's a lesson in there about betting on the patience of somebody who signs decrees for a living.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Spy Glass · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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