Russia places 16 Western companies under temporary administration / Nestlé and Auchan are on the list

Russia has placed 16 local companies linked to Western groups under temporary administration through a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin. The entities affected include Nestlé Russia, Nestlé Kuban, Auchan’s Russian subsidiary, two companies belonging to the FM Logistic group, and Le Monlid, the operator of the former Leroy Merlin stores, renamed Lemana Pro.

The stakes and shares were entrusted to the Russian company L.E.V. Management, established in Moscow in October 2024. The identity of its shareholders is not public, and the company reported no significant commercial activity in 2025. Its general director, Andrei Krayushkin, was appointed approximately one week before the decree was issued.

The measure does not formally constitute the confiscation of the companies and does not change their owners, according to Russian lawyers quoted by Kommersant. However, Moscow has previously used temporary administration before Western assets were sold or transferred to Russian buyers. The Kremlin justified the decision by citing strained relations with Western countries.

Nestlé is reviewing the legal and commercial options available to it. The group has approximately 7,000 employees and six factories in Russia, although the Russian market accounts for around 1% of its global sales. Auchan and Lemana Pro said that their stores and operations are continuing normally, while FM Logistic did not comment publicly.

The procedure follows the precedent of Danone, whose Russian operations were placed under the administration of an associate of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in 2023 and later sold at a reduced price.