Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin has sharply criticized the possible state confiscation of foreign companies that announced they were leaving the Russian market after the invasion of Ukraine, according to AFP.
Potanin, who regularly tops the Forbes list of Russia’s richest people, is close to President Vladimir Putin, with whom he played hockey together.
“I would call for a more cautious approach to the confiscation of companies that have announced their withdrawal from the Russian market. This will take us back to 1917.” – the year of the Bolshevik revolution, Potanin said in a Twitter communiqué released last night by the mining giant Norilsk Nickel, in which he is a major shareholder.
“The consequences of such a measure – global distrust of Russia on the part of investors – will be borne for many years,” he added.
Potanin also noted that many companies did not stop their activities, but only suspended them, which was probably taken “under unprecedented pressure on them from foreign public opinion.” So he thinks they can come back.
Faced with sanctions that caused the ruble to fall and inflation to accelerate further, Russia has taken steps to counter a possible outflow of currency and capital abroad.
Without saying the word “nationalization”, Putin yesterday called for appointing foreign administrators to head foreign companies leaving Russia in order to “hand them over to those who want them to work.”
However, he assured that Russia remains open to foreign economic entities wishing to be in the country and that their rights must be protected.
Meanwhile, the ruling United Russia party said it had drawn up a bill that would be the first step towards nationalizing the assets of foreign companies exiting the Russian market in order to avoid bankruptcies and keep jobs. This will be done through the court administrator.
On February 28, four days after tens of thousands of Russian troops invaded Ukraine, another oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, called for an end to “state capitalism” in Russia amid the crisis caused by Western sanctions.