Overview
- The presidential decree issued Thursday transferred Japan Tobacco International’s stakes in four Russian businesses to the manager Promyslovye Aktivy for temporary administration.
- Those stakes cover JTI’s four production plants in St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast and Rostov-on-Don, making JTI one of the country’s largest tobacco producers by sales volume.
- The move follows a series of September and October decrees that placed Nestlé, Metro AG, Auchan and other foreign firms under temporary management, actions the Kremlin has tied to owners being based in countries it calls unfriendly.
- Bilateral ties with Tokyo have recently worsened after Russia accused a Japanese firm of selling drones to Ukraine and said it detained a Japanese journalist in Sakhalin on suspicion of espionage, developments Moscow has described as hostile.
- The transfer raises legal and operational risks for JTI’s Russian workforce and supply chains and could prompt diplomatic protests from Japan while investors and other foreign firms watch for further Kremlin steps.