A Russian court ruled Tuesday to transfer ownership of Moscow’s privately owned Domodedovo airport to the state, the latest asset to fall into government hands in a sweeping nationalization drive.
Russian courts have taken over dozens of private businesses since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022, part of what critics call a Kremlin effort to shore up control of the economy.
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Prosecutors have used a range of legal arguments to justify the asset seizures, suggesting that firms are linked to corruption or were illegally privatized after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
At a hearing on Tuesday, the Moscow Region Arbitration Court agreed with prosecutors that the owners of Domodedovo airport, Russia’s fourth busiest, were foreign residents who had no right to manage the asset.
Prosecutors singled out billionaire beneficiaries Dmitry Kamenshchik and Valery Kogan, saying they had “transferred profits” of the strategically important enterprise abroad, the Interfax news agency reported.
Domodedovo Airport, on Moscow’s southern outskirts, saw over 15 million passengers last year and flies to destinations across Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East.
Billions of dollars’ worth of assets have been confiscated by the Russian state since 2022, including those belonging to Western firms like French dairy group Danone and German energy firm Uniper.
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The country has also taken effective ownership of hundreds of foreign-leased planes that became stranded in the country after Western countries froze airspace to Russian airlines.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Western firms are “welcome” to return to Russia, but critics say the asset seizures have created a hostile business environment that makes long-term investment untenable.
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