Oligarch Vladimir Potanin has openly criticized the possible seizure by the state of foreign companies that have announced their withdrawal from the country after the Russian military attack on Ukraine, a threat whose spectrum is growing.
Vladimir Potanin, who regularly tops Forbes’s list of the richest people in Russia, is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he is used to playing ice hockey.
“I would like to call for a very prudent approach to (…) the seizure of companies that announced their withdrawal from the Russian market. This will take us a hundred years back to 1917,” the year of the Bolshevik revolution. Potanin in an announcement made via Telegram last Thursday night by Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel), the giant mining company of which he is the main shareholder.
“The consequences of such a measure – the global distrust of investors on the part of Russia – we will suffer for many decades,” he added.
He also noted that many companies did not end their activities, but suspended them, a decision that may “have been taken after unprecedented pressure on them by foreign public opinion”. According to him, they may therefore return.
Without uttering the word “nationalization,” Putin said Thursday that he was in favor of appointing “foreign” commanders of foreign companies leaving Russia “to transfer them to those who want to make them work.”
However, he assured that Russia remains “open” to foreign economic agents who want it and that their rights “will be protected”.
Russia’s ruling United Russia party said in a statement that it had drafted a bill “which would be the first step towards the nationalization of foreign goods leaving the Russian market” in order to “avoid bankruptcy and save jobs”.
On February 28, four days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, another oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, called for an end to “state capitalism” in Russia following a crisis sparked by Western sanctions.
Many companies have announced that they are suspending operations in Russia, from Coca-Cola to H&M, passing through McDolnad’s, Ikea, Shell, BP.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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