Russian business leaders have urged President Vladimir Putin to take action against a surge in state asset confiscations that have impacted factories, ports, and major companies valued at over 4 trillion rubles ($43 billion), as reported by the business daily Kommersant.
During their annual end-of-year meeting with the president, the executives presented Putin with a letter detailing their concerns, according to Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).
Shokhin mentioned that they had previously discussed these issues with Putin during a 2023 meeting. Although Putin recognized the problem and stated it required attention, no tangible actions have been taken since then.
“We have now provided him with a letter and are looking forward to a resolution,” Shokhin commented. “We seek a definitive formula that leaves no room for judicial interpretation.”
He highlighted that business leaders are particularly worried about how alleged violations of “intangible rights and freedoms,” like the right to a decent standard of living, are increasingly being cited as justification for nationalization.
“Currently, the simplest way to deprivatize an asset is to claim that citizens’ rights to a decent life are being infringed upon,” he explained. “This is seen as a public interest that the state can protect even if there is no personal claim of harm, allowing for state takeover of property without compensation.”
Business leaders assert that if the government needs control of an asset, it should acquire it through purchase rather than confiscation.
“If the state finds it necessary to nationalize something, so be it — but it should pay for it, purchasing it from the current owner,” Shokhin stated.
Putin has consistently affirmed that there would be no reconsideration of the mass privatizations from the 1990s, which handed control of essential sectors of the economy to a limited number of oligarchs.
He reiterated this stance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notably at an RSPP congress in April 2024 and again at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2025.
Despite these assurances, the rate of asset seizures has been increasing.
In 2022, the government reclaimed approximately 100 companies worth a combined total of 1.3 trillion rubles, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. By 2024, this figure had risen to 2.4 trillion rubles, and by 2025, it surpassed 4 trillion.
Assets that have been transferred to state ownership include major entities such as Russia’s largest car dealership, Rolf; the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant; the gold producing company Yuzhuralzoloto; grain trader Rodnye Polya; warehouse operator Raven Russia; lead producer Dalpolimetall; Domodedovo Airport in Moscow; food conglomerate KDV Group; and various ports located in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Murmansk, Kaliningrad, and the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal.
Economist Yevgeny Nadorshin pointed out that the government is ramping up asset seizures to address budget deficits resulting from Western sanctions and an economic slowdown.
He noted that under a new law, state-owned enterprises will be mandated to allocate 50% of the market value of assets they receive through property redistribution to the federal budget.
