Putin put Russian assets of French supermarket chain Auchan and Swiss food giant Nestlé under temporary management. Neither company had left Russia after the full-scale invasion.

The assets of the Russian subsidiaries of France’s Auchan and Switzerland’s Nestlé have been placed under the temporary management of a company called L.E.V. Management, under a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The same decree also placed under temporary management a 0.007% stake held by the French group Adeo in Le Monlid, the Russian legal entity of Leroy Merlin, which now operates under the Lemana PRO brand.

In mid-August, Kommersant, citing sources, reported that a company called KS Logistika had asked Putin to impose temporary management on five of Nestlé’s Russian legal entities — a step that “could be the first stage in an ownership-transfer process.” According to Kommersant’s source, the request was prompted by “a lack of plans to expand capacity and a halt in exports of goods made in Russia.”

Neither Auchan nor Nestlé left Russia after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Nestlé did scale back its operations, however: the company halted investment, stopped selling some of its brands, such as KitKat and Nesquik, and announced that it did not plan to turn a profit in Russia.

Leroy Merlin’s owner said in 2023 that it was leaving Russia, and the home improvement stores have since operated under the brand name Lemana PRO.