By Anna Hirtenstein and Alexander Marrow
LONDON (REUTERS) – Plans for an American company have been seized by the Kremlin and under state control placed to be used to supply food to the Russian army, a document that Reuters saw, possibly showed that Moscow's warming relations may threaten with the US
While the US and the Kremlin negotiate to put the war in Ukraine, the canned food maker Glav product that was seized in October and the only American company taken under State Control is imprisoned in Crossshairs.
The American State Secretary Marco Rubio has said that the treatment will be part of the conversation about resetting the relations between the US and Russia.
The seizure was necessary to guarantee stable production, including for future supplies to the National Guard and Defense Ministry, according to a letter, assessed by Reuters, addressed to the Russian public prosecutor of the new management of Glav Produkt.
Glav product is now under the control of the Russian federal real estate management agency Rosimushchestvo seized by Leonid Smirnov in Los Angeles.
The Russian industry and the Handelsministerie and Rosimushchestvo did not respond to requests for comments on the State plans for Glav Produkt and questions about his new management.
Russian public prosecutors have accused Smirnov and companies that have been checked by moving around 1.38 billion rubles ($ 17 million) from Russia from 2022 to 2024, the RBC reported daily in March.
On March 12, the assets of Glav Produkt were seized by the Moscow Arbitration Court at the request of the office of the public prosecutor. A hearing is planned for April 18. Smirnov denies misconduct and says that the lawsuit is a “Russian -style company attack” to steal his business.
The public prosecutor did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
About a dozen European companies have expropriated their Russian subsidiaries by Presidential Decree, including the Danish brewer Carlsberg and Finnish Nutsfortum and the Kremlin has warned of more assets.
The invasion of Ukraine is expected to be a rapid operation, but the war is now extended to more than three years, seeing the spending of Russia and a stricter control of strategic assets. In 2022, Russia scribbled for military supplies, including food.
Who is gaining the attack?
The letter assessed by Reuters sheds light on the people who stand to win through the expropriation. It stated that Rosimushchestvo named the new director -general of Glav Produkt at the request of food producer Druzhba Narodov.
Druzhba Narodov was the only supplier of the Russian National Guard for 2019-2020, according to a press release from 2018.
A person who is familiar with the case said that Glav product has never supplied the Russian army before.
A study from 2018 by the anti-corruption fund of the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny revealed that the then President Dmitry Medvedev had signed on Druzhba Narodov who became the only supplier of the National Guard.
Property information for Druzhba Narodov was classified, but the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported in 2022 and then quoted publicly available information about the Russian Egrul Corporate Registry, which had been called with Agriculture Holding 'Drahba' Druzha Brezhba.
Reuters could not verify independently that as the information is now classified, but the agro -complex posture that is referred to, and Druzhba Narodov, the same agro -complex.ru domain name share for some e -mail addresses, according to their websites and archives of the Russian Spark Corporate Registry.
Druzhba Narodov and AgroComplex did not respond to requests for comments.
The ultimate owner of the Holding is Alexander Tkachev, according to the independent audit requests of the company, assessed by Reuters.
Tkachev, sanctioned by the European Union in 2014 for his support for the annexation of Crimea of Moscow, was appointed the Russian Minister of Agriculture the following year and is the chairman of the Holding Company, according to the files.
(Reporting by Anna Hirtenstein and Alexander Marrow in London; Edit by Elaine Hardcastle)
