The Kremlin this Wednesday threatened to expand the list of foreign companies whose assets in Russia have been placed under “temporary seizure” a day after Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving the acquisition of Western groups Fortum and Uniper.
“If necessary, the list of companies can be expanded. The main purpose of the (presidential) decree is to create a temporary compensation fund to apply (in the context of) countermeasures against the “illegal expropriation” of Russian assets abroad, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, said this, stressing that the announced seizures are temporary.
Initially, international measures against Russian companies were applied after the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine in February last year.