Russia’s Seizures Of Western Firms Stump U.S. Hopes For Better Ties

One morning in October 2024, three men entered the Moscow headquarters of Glavprodukt, Russia’s largest canned food manufacturer.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, around a dozen foreign firms—including Danish brewer Carlsberg and Finnish utility Fortum—have faced "temporary management" by the Russian Government. I Photo: Carlsberg

One of them introduced himself as the new director general and announced that he would now be making the decisions.

According to the company's founder and other sources, the men had been sent by Rosimushchestvo, Russia’s federal property management agency, Reuters reporters Anna Hirstenstein and Alexander Marrow reported.

President Vladimir Putin had decreed that Glavprodukt and other assets owned by U.S. company Universal Beverage be placed under the Russian state's "temporary management," giving Moscow control over the business.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, around a dozen foreign firms—including Danish brewer Carlsberg and Finnish utility Fortum—have faced similar fates, but Glavprodukt was the first U.S.-owned company to come under Moscow's control in this manner.

"Temporary management" is one of several ways the Russian government has sought to appropriate assets and redistribute them to regime loyalists, said Septimus Knox, director of disputes and investigations at risk consultancy S-RM.

Glavprodukt’s new management has not only radically restructured the company but also overseen a decline in sales, according to its founder, Leonid Smirnov.

"They have completely taken away my control of my company," Smirnov told Reuters from Los Angeles. Smirnov, who has lived in the U.S. since fleeing the Soviet Union in the 1970s, founded Glavprodukt in Russia in the late 1990s.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for a rapid restoration of ties with Moscow includes the potential lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has expressed expectations that U.S. companies will return to Russia.

However, none have announced plans to do so, and it remains unclear how the Kremlin could restore the confidence of Western investors—let alone compensate them for lost assets, Reuters reporters Emma Rumney and Gleb Stolyarov also noted.