Russia nationalizes 15 defense firms since early 2023

Since the beginning of 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia has ensured the return to state ownership of 15 enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex worth more than RUB 333 billion ($3.6 billion).

That’s according to Radio Liberty, Ukrinform reports.

According to the Prosecutor General, Igor Krasnov, these are strategic enterprises that were “illegally privatized”, and in some cases came under external control, with their new owners allegedly pursuing “a consistent policy of destroying them and harming the country's defense capabilities.” According to Krasnov, the firms’ foreign owners had not "modernized or developed production capacities for decades, while operational incomes were mostly transferred abroad."

Earlier, Krasnov reported that Russian prosecutors office achieved through courts "restoration of state control over dozens of strategic enterprises" worth a total of a trillion rubles.

The number of lawsuits involving nationalization claims has increased dramatically since Russia unleashed a full-scale war on Ukraine. Back in 2020 and 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office filed only three lawsuits per year.

As reported, after the launch of large-scale aggression against Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office filed 40 lawsuits for the seizure of over 180 companies in the government favor in what is seen as an orchestrated campaign of military nationalization of private property.