Putin places Russian units of five Western firms under forced administration
Those affected include flooring maker Tarkett, diaper producer Ontex and German packaging manufacturer Menshen. Kremlin spokesman Peskov speaks of the continuation of a trend.
Symbolic image · Photo: A.Savin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed the Russian operations of five Western companies under temporary administration by decree. According to the state news agency TASS, the management company Center Capital is taking control. The decree covers 100% of the shares in Tarkett Sommer, owned by flooring manufacturer Tarkett, 100% of Ontex RU, owned by Belgian hygiene products maker Ontex, and shares in Menshen Packaging CIS, owned by German packaging manufacturer Georg Menshen.
The decree also covers Eviosys Packaging Kuban, which belongs to a Dutch unit of Sonoco, and 12,565 shares of Kappa Rus, which according to the Interfax news agency previously belonged to the Irish group Smurfit Kappa. According to TASS, the decree does not give reasons or a duration. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke of the continuation of a trend, according to a report by The Rio Times. There was initially no comment from the companies affected.
The legal basis is a presidential decree from April 2023, under which Moscow has already placed the Russian subsidiaries of Uniper and Fortum under state control, as well as, in 2023, Danone Russia and the Baltika brewery, in which Carlsberg held a stake. Danone and Baltika were later removed from the list in the course of sales. Several similar decrees have already followed in 2026, including one at the end of September covering the Russian units of retail group Metro.