Putin places Danone and Carlsberg units in Russia under temporary management

On 16 July 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing the Russian subsidiaries of French dairy group Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg, which owns the Baltika brewery, under temporary management. Control passed to Rosimushchestvo, the federal agency that manages state property, which could appoint managers to run the businesses.

The decree came more than a year after Western companies began scaling back in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Both groups had said they were looking to exit the Russian market, and Carlsberg had been trying to sell Baltika, Russia's largest brewer. Danone and Carlsberg said they had lost control of their Russian operations and had no influence over them.

The move extended a mechanism first used in April 2023 against the Russian assets of Germany's Uniper and Finland's Fortum. It showed that the Kremlin was ready to take over foreign-owned businesses without the owners' consent, and it was followed by further temporary takeovers of Western-owned companies in Russia.