HELSINKI:The Kremlin warned on Wednesday it could seize more Western assets in retaliation for foreign moves against Russian companies, after taking temporary control of assets belonging to Finland’s Fortum and Germany’s Uniper.
President Vladimir Putin late on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of the two European state-owned energy firms. Energy group Fortum said it was “investigating” and Uniper, Fortum’s former subsidiary, said it was “reviewing” the move. The German finance ministry had no immediate comment.
The decree showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper’s Russian division Unipro and Fortum’s assets. Russia made clear that the move could be reversed.
“The decree adopted is a response to the aggressive actions of unfriendly countries,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “This initiative mirrors the attitude of Western governments towards foreign assets of Russian companies.”
Putin’s decree “does not deal with property issues and does not deprive the owners of their assets. Because external management is temporary and only means that the original owner no longer has the right to make management decisions,” Peskov continued.
“The main purpose of the decree is to form a compensation fund for the possible application of reciprocal measures in response to the illegal expropriation of Russian assets abroad.”
The decree said Russia needed to take urgent measures to respond to unspecified actions from the United States and others it said were “unfriendly and contrary to international law”. The two entities’ shares were placed in the temporary control of Rosimushchestvo, the federal government property agency.
Uniper owns 83.73 percent of Unipro, which operates five power plants with a total capacity of over 11 gigawatts in Russia and about 4,300 employees.
Fortum is majority-owned by Finland, which joined the NATO military alliance early this month. Moscow said Finland had made a dangerous mistake.
