Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the possibility of nationalizing companies in the interests of national defense. He said this while speaking at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which unites large businesses.
Putin said that the nationalization of several industrial enterprises “does not reconsider privatization.” According to him, we are talking about “cases when the actions or inactions of the owners of enterprises and property complexes cause direct damage to the country’s security and national interests” (quote from the Kommersant newspaper website).
A new wave of nationalization began in Russia during the war with Ukraine. The business publication The Bell names officials and big businessmen as the main victims.
According to estimates by Novaya Gazeta Europe and the Russian Transparency International, the number of nationalization claims in 2023 has increased almost five times compared to pre-war. In just two years of war, the courts received a record 40 demands for the nationalization of more than 180 private companies. The total assets of these companies amounted to about 1.04 trillion rubles (about 0.6% of Russia’s GDP), as of the beginning of March.
Since the spring of 2022, Russia has transferred to the state ownership the rare earth metals producer Solikamsk Magnesium Plant, the Ural Auto-Textile Plant and the Friction and Heat-Resistant Materials Plant, the Rostov Optical-Mechanical Plant, the electronics manufacturer Pluton Plant, the methanol producer Metafrax. “, the manufacturer of ferroalloys Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, the manufacturer of explosives “Oilfield Production Services”.
In addition to them, the state received enterprises not related to the military-industrial complex, including the largest car dealer Rolf, which belonged to former State Duma deputy Sergei Petrov, who criticized the government, an agricultural concern, and energy enterprises. The Prosecutor General’s Office plans to nationalize Russia’s largest pasta producer, Makfa.
