Moscow promises to closely monitor foreign businesses that return to Russia
Russia's President Vladimir Putin applauds during a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Bahrain's National Security Advisor Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa and South Africa's Deputy President Paul Mashatile attend a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia, June 20, 2025. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.
ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, who has led the state's efforts to seize property worth 2.4 trillion roubles ($31 billion), on Friday said foreign companies that return to the country would be watched closely to ensure Russia benefited.
Moscow has placed around a dozen foreign-owned assets under state management in the more than three years that Russia has been fighting in Ukraine and prosecutors have stepped up the seizure of domestic assets through the courts this year.
Now, as the economy begins to slow after two years of growth fuelled by high military spending, Russian officials are trying to find the balance between insulating the economy from exposure to Western nations it considers unfriendly and the need for growth to keep funding the conflict in Ukraine.
"We will closely follow the government's actions," Krasnov said. "That is, who will come... on what terms they will come."
"We will definitely look at making sure that the conditions under which our (Russian) business operates are better (when Western business returns)," Krasnov said.
It must be profitable for Russia's own firms, he said.
Russia is prioritising domestic companies, some of whom have taken market share vacated by Western firms, such as McDonald's and Unilever, that have left since Russia launched the conflict in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin on Friday said the Russian economy could not develop effectively without investment and said Moscow would create conditions to make foreign partners feel comfortable.
He said Russian companies should fulfil legally binding buybacks with foreign companies, but stressed that Russia would support measures that benefit its own interests.
"If someone left for political reasons, under pressure from their own political elites, their countries, then this means they are unreliable partners," Putin said.
WESTERN FIRMS ABSENT
Kirill Dmitriev, chief of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, has said that U.S. companies are in talks to return to Russia, although lawyers and investors have told Reuters that sanctions must be lifted before any significant influx can take place.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the Izvestia daily on Friday that no foreign companies had yet submitted requests to return.
"There are no applications for entry yet, but I feel that the situation is changing and interest in investing in Russia is growing," Siluanov said.
The sparse Western presence at Russia's forum suggests otherwise, with some analysts also pointing to concerns about property rights.
Two sources from Russia's energy and banking sectors said some companies may be interested in returning as there could be money to be made, but not in the current situation.
Assets owned by French yoghurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg are among the foreign assets taken under state control and sold to Kremlin-friendly buyers since 2022. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
36 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Trump disavows spy chief Gabbard's take on Iran's nuclear program
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard departs after a closed door meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines, June 2, 2025. Ezra Acayan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Trump contested intelligence assessments relayed earlier this year by his spy chief that Tehran was not working on a nuclear weapon when he spoke with reporters at an airport in Morristown, New Jersey. "She's wrong," Trump said. Gabbard testified to Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community continued to judge that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead. Trump's comments came as the president has said he would weigh involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict over the next two weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified a week of airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets by saying Tehran was on the verge of having a warhead. Gabbard's office has previously pointed to quotes from the spy chief saying that she and Trump were "on the same page" regarding the status of Iran's nuclear program. Iran denies developing nuclear weapons, saying its uranium enrichment program was only for peaceful purposes. A source with access to U.S. intelligence reports told Reuters that the assessment presented by Gabbard had not changed. They said U.S. spy services also judged that it would take up to three years for Iran to build a warhead with which it could hit a target of its choice. Some experts, however, believe it could take Iran a much shorter time to build and deliver an untested crude nuclear device, although there would be no guarantee it would work. Trump has frequently disavowed the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, which he and his supporters have charged - without providing proof - are part of a "deep state" cabal of U.S. officials opposed to his presidency. The Republican president repeatedly clashed with U.S. spy agencies during his first term, including over an assessment that Moscow worked to sway the 2016 presidential vote in his favor and his acceptance of Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials. Gabbard, a fierce Trump loyalist, has been among the president's backers who have aired such allegations. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
US judge orders release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil
Mr Mahmoud Khalil - a US permanent resident - was arrested by US immigration agents on March 8. PHOTO: REUTERS NEW YORK - A US judge ordered on June 20 that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil be released from immigration custody, a major victory for rights groups that challenged what they called the Trump administration's unlawful targeting of a pro-Palestinian activist. Mr Khalil, a prominent figure in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel's war on Gaza, was arrested by immigration agents in the lobby of his university residence in Manhattan on March 8. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has called the protests anti-Semitic and vowed to deport foreign students who took part, and Mr Khalil became the first target of this policy. After hearing oral arguments from lawyers for Mr Khalil and for the Department of Homeland Security, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ordered DHS to release him from custody at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana. Judge Farbiarz said the government had made no attempt to rebut evidence provided by Mr Khalil's lawyers that he was not a flight risk nor a danger to public. 'There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner (Mr Khalil),' Judge Farbiarz said as he ruled from the bench, and punishing someone over a civil immigration matter is unconstitutional, he said. Mr Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, says he is being punished for his political speech in violation of the US Constitution's First Amendment. Mr Khalil condemned anti-Semitism and racism in interviews with CNN and other news outlets in 2024. Earlier this month, Judge Farbiarz had ruled that the government was violating Mr Khalil's free speech rights by detaining him under a little-used law granting the US secretary of state power to seek deportation of non-citizens whose presence in the country was deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests. But the judge declined on June 13 to order Mr Khalil's release from a detention centre in Jena, Louisiana, after President Donald Trump's administration said Mr Khalil was being held on a separate charge that he withheld information from his application for lawful permanent residency. Mr Khalil's lawyers deny that allegation and say people are rarely detained on such charges. On June 16, they urged Judge Farbiarz to grant a separate request from their client to be released on bail or be transferred to immigration detention in New Jersey to be closer to his family in New York. Dr Noor Abdalla, Mr Khalil's wife and a US citizen, at home with their baby son. PHOTO: REUTERS At the June 20 hearing, Judge Farbiarz said it was 'highly unusual' for the government to jail an immigrant accused of omissions in his application for US permanent residency. Mr Khalil, 30, became a US permanent resident in 2024, and his wife and newborn son are US citizens. Trump administration lawyers wrote in a June 17 filing that Mr Khalil's request for release should be addressed to the judge overseeing his immigration case, an administrative process over whether he can be deported, rather than to Judge Farbiarz, who is considering whether Mr Khalil's March 8 arrest and subsequent detention were constitutional. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
Panama temporarily suspends some constitutional guarantees in protest-rocked province
Riot police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators during an operation to clear roadblocks set up by protesters as part of a widespread strike by workers of the Chiquita banana company, which had ceased operations in the area, and are part of broader protests against social security reforms, in Bocas del Toro, Panama, June 14, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Reuters TV/via REUTERS A worker uses a front loader to clear a roadblock set up by protesters as part of a widespread strike by workers of the Chiquita banana company, which had ceased operations in the area, and are part of broader protests against social security reforms, in Bocas del Toro, Panama, June 14, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Reuters TV/via REUTERS Riot police arrive to clear a roadblock set up by protesters as part of a widespread strike by workers of the Chiquita banana company, which had ceased operations in the area, and are part of broader protests against social security reforms, in Bocas del Toro, Panama, June 14, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Reuters TV/via REUTERS A detained demonstrator is loaded into a police vehicle during an operation by the police to clear roadblocks set up by protesters as part of a widespread strike by workers of the Chiquita banana company, which had ceased operations in the area, and are part of broader protests against social security reforms, in Bocas del Toro, Panama, June 14, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Reuters TV/via REUTERS PANAMA CITY - Panama's government on Friday temporarily suspended some constitutional rights in the western province of Bocas del Toro hours after businesses and government offices were ransacked, following more than a month of protests and road blocks over a pension reform law. "In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace," said Juan Carlos Orillac, minister of the presidency. The measure will be in place for five days, he said. The government said the situation in Bocas del Toro had "escalated dangerously" after the violence on Thursday. Nationwide, protesters - backed by unions and Indigenous groups - have faced off with authorities over a pension reform law passed in March. Confrontations have been particularly intense in Bocas del Toro, largely led by workers at a local Chiquita banana plantation. Chiquita called the workers' strike an "unjustified abandonment of work" and sacked thousands of employees. Those workers ultimately withdrew from the protests after they were able to negotiate the restoration of some benefits that had been removed under the March pension reform. Still, the government has said road blocks in Bocas del Toro have yet to be lifted, though it did not directly attribute them to the Chiquita workers. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
