Russian firm asks Kremlin to place Nestlé’s $2B Russian operations under state management

A relatively obscure Russian logistics firm has asked the Kremlin to take temporary state control of five Nestlé subsidiaries operating inside Russia, valued at a combined RUB 160-170 billion, or roughly $2 billion. The petition, filed by KS Logistics on August 17, targets the Swiss food giant’s remaining footprint in a country that has become an increasingly hostile environment for Western multinationals.

The request cites two justifications: Nestlé’s decision to halt expansion plans in Russia and its move to stop exporting Russian-produced goods.

In 2023, Moscow placed assets belonging to Danone and Carlsberg under temporary management using a similar mechanism. Those moves effectively transferred operational control of major Western-owned facilities to Russian-appointed managers.

The five Nestlé entities named in the petition are Nestlé Russia, Nestlé Kuban, Cereal Partners Rus, TsPB Nestlé, and Atrium Innovations Rus. Together they span six production sites across the Kaluga, Vologda, Samara, Vladimir, Perm, and Krasnodar regions.

Nestlé first entered the Russian market in 1994 and for decades operated as one of the country’s largest foreign food producers. The company began scaling back non-essential operations after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and by 2024, it had formally halted all new investments in the country.

According to reporting by Russian business newspaper Kommersant, Nestlé has not received any formal queries related to the KS Logistics petition. The company continues to meet local regulatory requirements.

Moscow’s temporary management mechanism functions as a kind of corporate limbo: the original owner retains nominal ownership, but a state-appointed entity runs day-to-day operations. When Danone’s Russian dairy and beverage operations were placed under temporary management, the French company eventually lost effective control of assets it had spent years building. Carlsberg faced a similar fate with its Baltika Breweries subsidiary, one of Russia’s largest beer producers.

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