Putin decree places Auchan, Nestle and former Leroy Merlin assets in Russia under new management
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dated September 17 placing the Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle, and the former Leroy Merlin chain under the management of a Moscow-registered company with no prior commercial activity. The assets were transferred to "L.E.V. Management," registered in October 2024, whose general director is Andriy Krayushin and whose beneficial owners have not been disclosed. The decree extends a pattern of accelerated nationalization of foreign-owned businesses in Russia.
Key points
- Decree signed by Putin is dated September 17, 2026.
- Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle and the former Leroy Merlin chain were transferred to the management of "L.E.V. Management."
- "L.E.V. Management" was registered in Moscow in October 2024 and had not conducted commercial activity.
- Andriy Krayushin is listed as general director; beneficial owners have not been disclosed.
- Logistics operators FM Logistics, Bati Logistics and LLC "Le Monlid" were also placed under the same structure.
- The move follows an autumn 2025 decree shortening the asset evaluation period for foreign-company nationalizations to 10 days.
- All transactions with confiscated property are handled by Promsvyazbank, which serves the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Why it matters
The decree extends the pattern of forced transfer of foreign-owned businesses in Russia to major Western retail and consumer goods companies. The intermediary receiving the assets is a recently created, inactive entity whose beneficial ownership is not disclosed, raising questions about the ultimate destination of these businesses and their value. The step sits within a broader Russian legal framework for accelerated nationalization of foreign companies, framed by Moscow as a response to Western measures affecting Russian assets.
What happened
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on September 17 placing Russian assets of Auchan, Nestle and the former Leroy Merlin chain under the management of "L.E.V. Management," a joint-stock company registered in Moscow in October 2024. Andriy Krayushin is listed as general director; the company had not carried out any prior commercial activity and its beneficial owners have not been disclosed. The same structure also received control over logistics operators FM Logistics, Bati Logistics and LLC "Le Monlid," the former Leroy Merlin chain. Under a separate autumn 2025 decree, the asset evaluation period for foreign-company nationalizations was shortened to 10 days, and all transactions with confiscated property are handled by Promsvyazbank, which serves the Russian Ministry of Defence.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
The two supplied Ukrainian sources frame the decree as a seizure of foreign-owned businesses, using the word "confiscation" or describing an involuntary transfer of assets. They emphasize that the intermediary receiving the assets is a recently registered company with undisclosed beneficial owners and no prior commercial record.
Where reporting differs
One supplied Ukrainian source frames the decree as a transfer of assets to "temporary management," while the other describes it as confiscation of Russian assets. The underlying mechanism — a decree placing assets under the management of a recently created entity — is reported in both accounts.
Background
Auchan had operated in Russia since 2002, with 230 stores in 100 cities through LLC "Ashan," almost fully owned by the French company Sogepar. Nestle had been in Russia since 1994, with six large production facilities and reported aggregate Russian revenue of nearly 30 billion rubles in 2021, before classifying subsequent years' data. Leroy Merlin had operated in Russia since 2004; in December 2023, 99.99% of its Russian legal entity LLC "Le Monlid" was transferred to a UAE-registered holding, with French Adeo formally retaining only 0.007%, and the chain was rebranded as "Lemana PRO," running 112 stores and 11 dark stores. In May 2024, Putin signed a decree enabling 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 shortening the evaluation period for foreign-company nationalizations to 10 days in connection with EU decisions to loan Ukraine using revenues from frozen Russian assets.