The Russian state has taken control of shares in the Russian subsidiary of French food producer Danone, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 16.
The decree also said that the state is taking control of the shares in Baltika Breweries that are owned by the Danish multinational corporation Carlsberg Group.
The decree says the Russian state would "temporarily" manage shares belonging to Danone Russia and the shares that Carlsberg owns in Baltika, a leading brewing company in Russia with approximately 30 percent of the market share.
Carlsberg Group last year announced plans to withdraw from the Russian market within weeks of the start of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. It employed 8,400 people at the time. Last month the multinational brewer said it had found a buyer for the business subject to regulatory approval but did not disclose the name.
Danone was one of the few multinationals to have remained in Russia since the offensive began. It announced in October that it planned to withdraw from most of its business in the country and take a write-off of up to 1 billion euros ($980 million).
Neither Danone nor Carlsberg has commented on the decree Putin signed on July 16.
A large number of major Western companies have pulled out of Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 2022.
The Kremlin warned in April after the Russian subsidiaries of Finnish energy group Fortum and its former German subsidiary Uniper were taken under state control that Moscow could seize more Western assets in retaliation for what it called the illegal seizure of Russian assets abroad.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters then that the decree did not concern ownership, just the power to manage the assets, RFE/RL reports.
