Russian firm asks Kremlin to place Nestlé’s $2B Russian operations under state management

A relatively obscure Russian logistics firm has asked the Kremlin to take temporary state control of five Nestlé subsidiaries operating inside Russia, valued at a combined RUB 160-170 billion, or roughly $2 billion. The petition, filed by KS Logistics on August 17, targets the Swiss food giant’s remaining footprint in a country that has become an increasingly hostile environment for Western multinationals. The request cites two justifications: Nestlé’s decision to halt expansion plans in Russia and its move to stop exporting Russian-produced goods. In 2023, Moscow placed assets belonging to Danone and Carlsberg under temporary management using a similar mechanism. Those moves effectively transferred operational control of major Western-owned facilities to Russian-appointed managers. The five Nestlé entities named in the petition are Nestlé Russia, Nestlé Kuban, Cereal Partners Rus, TsPB Nestlé, and Atrium Innovations Rus. Together they span six production sites across the Kaluga, Vologda, Samara, Vladimir, Perm, and Krasnodar regions. Nestlé first entered the Russian market in 1994 and for decades operated as one of the country’s largest foreign food producers. The company began sc...