Russian Prosecutors Warn Western Companies of Arrests, Asset Seizures
Russian prosecutors have issued warnings to Western companies in Russia, threatening to arrest corporate leaders there who criticize the government or to seize assets of companies that withdraw from the country, according to people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors delivered the warnings in the past week to companies including
Coca-Cola Co.
,
McDonald’s Corp.
,
Procter & Gamble Co.
,
International Business Machines Corp.
and KFC owner
Yum Brands Inc.,
the people said. The calls, letters and visits included threats to sue the companies and seize assets including trademarks, the people said.
Russian President
last week expressed support for a law to nationalize assets of foreign companies that leave his country over its invasion of Ukraine. The prosecutors’ warnings were directed at companies across sectors, including technology, food, apparel and banking, the people familiar with the matter said.
The warnings have prompted at least one of the targeted companies to limit communications between its Russian business and the rest of the company, out of concern that emails or text messages among colleagues may be intercepted, some of the people said.
Other companies have moved to transfer executives out of Russia, other people familiar with the matter said.
Spokespeople for Coca-Cola, IBM,
and McDonald’s declined to comment. A Yum spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the restaurant company’s past statements on its decision to pause operations at its KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia.
KFC operating in a Russian shopping center Saturday.
Photo:
Maksim Konstantinov/Zuma Press
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond Sunday to a request for comment.
A parade of companies have announced plans to suspend or scale back their operations in Russia in the wake of Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed by Western governments.
Many companies, particularly retailers and manufacturers, have said their decisions to stop operations are temporary. Some said they were necessitated by the disruption that sanctions have had on supply chains. Others have committed to leaving for good.
Companies are also evaluating their business in Russia in a different way given the economic instability and expectations that conditions will be volatile for some time, according to people briefed on the matter. Despite the prosecutors’ warnings, a number of the companies aren’t planning to change their decisions to withdraw or suspend operations, the…
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