London — 

The Kremlin has moved to seize the Russian assets of Nestlé and French retailer Auchan amid a broader nationalization drive that has seen a surge in government takeovers of private companies.

Auchan and Nestlé are “European companies from unfriendly countries… currently actively involved in hostilities against us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday, a day after a presidential decree announced the measures. Both companies’ assets have been placed under the temporary control of the domestic firm L.E.V Management, according to the decree.

Nestle, the maker of KitKat chocolates and Nescafe coffee, said it was assessing its options. The world’s largest food and beverage company still operates six sites in Russia, employing more than 7,000 people. Its sales in the country accounted for 2% of group sales in 2021, the last year it reported figures, equal to around 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion).

“Nestlé is committed to taking all necessary steps to protect its rights and ensure continuity of business operations in the interests of all stakeholders, particularly its employees,” the company said in a statement. Nestlé’s shares fell 2% in Zurich.

Auchan, which sells groceries, clothes, household goods and electronics, did not respond to a CNN request for comment. The retail chain has 230 physical stores and an online presence in Russia, employing 30,000 people, according to its website.

Russia has cemented its grip on foreign-owned firms since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022. A decree signed by President Vladimir Putin the following year gave the government power to place assets from countries deemed “unfriendly” under its temporary control. Not long afterwards it seized control of French yogurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg’s Russian subsidiaries.

More than 1,000 companies exited Russia voluntarily in the month’s following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nestlé drastically reduced the range of products it sold in Russia after the start of the Ukraine war, though the company has drawn criticism, including from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, over its decision to continue doing business in the country. Nestlé has defended the decision to supply “important food” to the population, saying it does not make a profit from its “significantly scaled back” Russian operations.

The Kremlin’s campaign to take control of private enterprise has not stopped with foreign-owned firms. It is increasingly tightening the screws on domestic companies too, redistributing assets on a scale not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office “has been aggressively pursuing a suite of nationalizations, reopening privatization deals from the 1990s on the grounds that they violated the country’s economic sovereignty,” Alexandra Prokopenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times Friday.

Putin’s United Russia Party is expected to win an overwhelming majority in elections for the State Duma this weekend, the first nationwide parliamentary elections since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

– CNN’s Anna Chernova and Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/business/kremlin-seizes-nestle-assets-russia-intl