The Russian government is set to put Moscow’s Domodedovo airport up for sale at the beginning of next year, according to a statement from the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. This decision comes several months after the airport was nationalized due to suspicions about foreign ownership.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov did not elaborate on the rationale behind the planned sale of the country’s fourth busiest airport but mentioned that considerable efforts had been made regarding its management and that officials were aware of potential interested buyers.

“I anticipate that Domodedovo will be auctioned off early next year,” Siluanov remarked during a state television interview, clarifying that the auction would be open to all bidders.

In June, a court determined that ownership of Domodedovo should be transferred to the government, asserting that its previous owners, Dmitry Kamenshchik and Valery Kogan, were foreign nationals who were not entitled to govern the airport.

Andrei Ivanov, a former government minister who took over the airport after its nationalization, informed the RBK news agency in July that Domodedovo was facing substantial debt and was in search of a new owner.

Since 2022, the Russian government has confiscated assets valued in the billions, including holdings of Western companies such as the French dairy giant Danone and the German energy corporation Uniper.

Officials defend these nationalizations as a just response to flawed privatizations that occurred during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. However, critics argue that these asset seizures have negatively impacted long-term investment in Russia.