Putin signs decree seizing Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle and former Leroy Merlin network
Vladimir Putin signed a decree dated September 17 transferring Russian assets of French retailer Auchan, Swiss food company Nestle, and the former Leroy Merlin chain, along with several logistics operators, to the management of a recently created joint-stock company. The receiving entity, "L.E.V. Management," was registered in Moscow only in October 2024, has no prior commercial activity, and has not disclosed its beneficial owners. The Kremlin cited the companies' alleged belonging to "unfriendly countries" as the reason for the decision.
Key points
- Decree dated September 17 transfers Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle and former Leroy Merlin to "L.E.V. Management."
- The same structure also received control of logistics operators FM Logistics, Bati Logistics and LLC "Le Monlid."
- "L.E.V. Management" was registered in Moscow in October 2024, had no prior commercial activity and has undisclosed beneficial owners; Andriy Krayushkin is listed as general director.
- The Kremlin cited the alleged belonging of these companies to "unfriendly countries" as the reason for the decision.
- Auchan has operated in Russia since 2002 with 230 stores in 100 cities; LLC "Ashan" is almost fully owned by French company Sogepar.
- Nestle has operated in Russia since 1994 and owns six large production facilities; its 2021 Russian revenue was almost 30 billion rubles before the company classified financial data after the full-scale invasion.
- Leroy Merlin rebranded to "Lemana PRO" with 112 stores and 11 dark stores; in December 2023, 99.99% of LLC "Le Monlid" was sold to UAE-based Scenari Holding LP, with French Adeo retaining only 0.007%.
- Confiscated-property transactions are handled by Promsvyazbank, which services the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Why it matters
The decree marks one of the largest moves yet in Russia's campaign to confiscate the Russian assets of Western companies that remained operating or nominally restructured their presence after 2022. The affected firms are major French and Swiss retail and consumer-goods companies with long-standing Russian operations. The seizure is channeled through a vehicle with no disclosed ownership and no prior commercial activity, with transactions routed through a bank that services the Russian defense ministry. It follows earlier Russian retaliatory measures, including a May 2024 decree on American property and an autumn 2025 acceleration of nationalization procedures that shortened the asset evaluation period to 10 days.
What happened
On September 17, Vladimir Putin signed a decree forcibly transferring the Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle, the former Leroy Merlin network, and three logistics operators — FM Logistics, Bati Logistics and LLC "Le Monlid" — to the management of joint-stock company "L.E.V. Management." The Kremlin said the companies belonged to "unfriendly countries." "L.E.V. Management" was registered in Moscow in October 2024, had conducted no commercial activity before the decree, and has not disclosed its beneficial owners; Andriy Krayushkin is listed as general director. All transactions with the confiscated property are to be handled by Promsvyazbank, which serves the Russian Ministry of Defense. The decree continues a pattern of Russian measures targeting foreign-owned assets: in May 2024, Putin signed a decree allowing the use of American property in Russia to compensate for damage from the seizure of Russian assets in the United States, and in autumn 2025 he issued a decree accelerating nationalization procedures for foreign companies by shortening the asset evaluation period to 10 days.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All three supplied Ukrainian-language sources — Interfax-Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda and Suspilne News — frame the action as a confiscation or nationalization by Putin of the Russian assets of foreign companies. The coverage centers on the receiving structure "L.E.V. Management": its recent registration in October 2024, its lack of prior commercial activity, and its undisclosed beneficial ownership. The articles situate the decree within Russia's broader retaliatory framework, linking it to the May 2024 decree on American property in Russia and the autumn 2025 acceleration of foreign-asset nationalization.
Background
Leroy Merlin rebranded its Russian operations to "Lemana PRO" and in December 2023 sold 99.99% of its Russian legal entity LLC "Le Monlid" to UAE-based Scenari Holding LP, with French Adeo retaining only 0.007% of shares. Auchan's Russian division LLC "Ashan" remains almost entirely owned by French company Sogepar; Auchan declared autonomous operation after 2022 but did not leave the Russian market, and currently operates 230 stores in 100 cities. Nestle has operated in Russia since 1994, owns six large production facilities there, and classified its Russian financial data after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine; its main Russian legal entities had aggregate revenue of almost 30 billion rubles in 2021.