- Russia has seized $50 billion in belongings since invading Ukraine in 2022, based on a Moscow-based legislation agency.
- Authorities focused 102 non-public belongings, together with international companies like Carlsberg and Danone.
- Russia’s financial resilience is waning, with indicators of recession and slowed GDP progress.
Russia has confiscated almost 3.9 trillion rubles, or round $50 billion, price of belongings since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, based on a report by Moscow-based legislation agency Nektorov, Saveliev and Partners.
The evaluation discovered that Russian authorities have seized 102 non-public belongings over the previous three years. They spanned a wide range of industries, and a few have been resold to house owners together with the state.
Targets included international and home firms, corresponding to Danish brewer Carlsberg and French meals bigDanone. The Kremlin has cited causes starting from corruption to extremism to justify the asset seizures.
In 2024, Russia’s federal price range obtained 132 billion rubles from property gross sales, per Russian information outlet Interfax. Roughly 1 / 4 of that complete got here from the sale of Rolf, the nation’s largest automotive dealership. The corporate was beforehand owned by the household of a Kremlin critic now residing in exile.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov stated in March that the federal government goals to boost at the least 100 billion rubles from gross sales of seized belongings this yr.
The aggressive asset seizures come as indicators emerge that Russia’s post-invasion financial resilience could also be faltering as sweeping Western sanctions take maintain. A current S&P World survey confirmed a pointy contraction in manufacturing activity in June.
Simply final month, Russia’s financial system minister, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the nation was “on the brink” of a recession.
Russia’s GDP grew 1.4% within the first quarter of the yr from a yr in the past, based on Rosstat, the nation’s official statistics service. This can be a steep slowdown from the 4.5% progress it posted within the fourth quarter of final yr. In 2024, Russia’s financial system grew 4.3% for the total yr.
In January, a distinguished Swedish economist stated Russia may run out of liquid reserves as quickly as this fall.
