Putin hands French flooring giant Tarkett’s Russian assets to former regional official who fought in Ukraine. New owner asks journalists not to write about it.

Source: The Insider

Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred the Russian business of French flooring maker Tarkett and four other major companies with combined revenue of 53 billion rubles to the management of Marat Mirkhaidarov, a former deputy premier of Zabaikalsky Krai, the independent Russian investigative outlets The Insider and Agentstvo found.

Control over the companies passed to Center Capital Management Company LLC. Two companies registered in Russia carry that name, and one belongs to Mirkhaidarov, The Insider found.

Mirkhaidarov served as deputy chairman of the Zabaikalsky Krai government until March 2025. In January 2024, he volunteered to fight in the war against Ukraine with the Chechen battalion “Akhmat,” spending four months at the front. He resigned afterward, citing the need to recover from a battlefield injury.

Mirkhaidarov personally confirmed receiving the assets in a conversation with Agentstvo. He called the decision “the political will of our president” and said he was ready to return the assets at Putin’s first request.

He asked journalists not to report on the transfer of the companies.

Right now we’re giving our enemies a chance to discuss what was transferred, to whom it was transferred, and why it was transferred. We’re giving our enemies, the psy-ops crowd, a chance to dig around. To dig around in my life story, in my family.

Asked whether the change in management might interest Russian businessmen, Mirkhaidarov replied that the business “still belongs, as it always did,” to its foreign owners.

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Putin hands French flooring giant Tarkett’s Russian assets to former regional official who fought in Ukraine. New owner asks journalists not to write about it.

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