The head of Norilsk Nickel is against the confiscation of property of foreign companies in Russia | Russia and Russians: a view from Europe | DW

The head of Norilsk Nickel, businessman Vladimir Potanin, spoke out against the confiscation of the assets of foreign companies that are leaving the Russian market in protest against the war in Ukraine. “This will take us back a hundred years, to 1917, and the consequences of such a step – a global distrust of Russia on the part of investors – we will experience for many decades,” Potanin was quoted as saying by Norilsk Nickel’s telegram channel on Thursday, March 10.

According to the Russian entrepreneur, foreign companies will return. “And personally, I would save that opportunity for them,” he added. Earlier that day, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev spoke about the plans of the Russian authorities to nationalize the property of foreign firms that left Russia. According to him, the government is already working on measures, which include bankruptcy and the creation of “new industries on the basis of abandoned ones.”

According to the Izvestiya newspaper, a list of 59 foreign companies that are planned to be nationalized has already been sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Among them are Volkswagen, Apple, IKEA, Microsoft, IBM, Shell, McDonald’s, Porsche, Toyota, H&M and others.

See also:

• War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  The third week of the war has begun. Kharkiv, Irpin, Bucha are in the way of fulfilling the order given by President Putin and are subjected to severe bombing and shelling. On March 9, in Mariupol, a bomb hit the courtyard of the city maternity hospital. Terrible fears become reality. This picture was taken in Beirut near the Russian Embassy in Lebanon.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Reports of the bombing of the maternity hospital caused shock around the world. “What Russia is doing in Mariupol is not even genocide,” Piotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the city, told DW: “Humanity has not yet come up with a definition for the atrocities that Russia is committing in Mariupol. If this is not stopped, it will spread further.”

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  According to the first data of the Ukrainian authorities, 17 people were injured as a result. There were no reports of deaths at first. On the morning of March 10, Mariupol announced that three people, including one child, had died as a result of the shelling of a maternity hospital. It is not possible to quickly verify this information in war conditions.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Evacuation from a destroyed maternity hospital in Mariupol. The city is surrounded, cut off from help, deprived of water and light. Before the start of the war, about 430 thousand people lived here.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  The last shot from Mariupol for today. According to the UN, as of March 8, during the hostilities in Ukraine, 1,424 civilian victims were registered, among them 516 dead, including 37 children. 908 people were injured. The real situation is probably worse, since it is difficult to obtain and collect such information during combat operations.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  “Aerial bombing on a maternity hospital is the final proof, proof that a genocide of Ukrainians is taking place,” President Zelensky said. “Children’s hospital, maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation? What kind of country is this <...>, which is afraid of hospitals, is afraid of maternity hospitals and destroys them? Were there little Bandera people there? <...> What was it, the denazification of the hospital?”.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Refugees from Zaporozhye on the border with Poland. Civilians are leaving their homes, heading to safer regions of Ukraine. Many then go to Europe or through these states to visit relatives in other countries of the world. European governments are coordinating efforts to adequately receive and accommodate all those who need help.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Among the refugees, it is estimated that there are already one million children. These children are still in Lviv. The city is overcrowded and preparing for defense – along with Odessa and other Ukrainian cities.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  The Russian army continues to try to encircle Kyiv. The city is ready to repel aggression by the forces of the military and members of the territorial defense forces, by all the people. For Ukrainians, the defense of their homeland has already become the Patriotic War. On March 10, the mayor of the city, Vitaliy Klitschko, announced that every second inhabitant had already left the capital of Ukraine. There are about two million people in Kyiv now.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  This photo was taken at a refugee reception center in the Hungarian village of Barabas.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Mother and baby four weeks old. Refugees from Ukraine at the registration and temporary accommodation center in the Bavarian city of Augsburg. From here, people are distributed further – to hostels or other opportunities are found.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Some sweets after a hard, very hard journey – at the train station in Berlin. Many Germans offer refugees free rooms in their houses and apartments. The German media even publish recommendations on how to do everything right – for example, inform landlords.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Massive protests against the war continue around the world. This demonstration of many thousands was organized and held by schoolchildren in the German city of Frankfurt am Main.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  In the sky over Frankfurt am Main during this action one could see such an inscription in German: “Frieden” – “Peace”, made by sports aircraft.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, already in the first days of the war, visited the Ukrainian church and community in London. Now he met with refugees from the country – in the Anglican church Holy Trinity Brompton, whose parishioners provide assistance to people from Ukraine. Earlier, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain made a generous donation to the Committee for Emergency Situations to support Ukrainians.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  In Berlin, people bring flowers to the Ukrainian embassy. There is also such a garland made by children. In many places in Germany, for example, in Cologne, calls for peace and Ukrainian flags painted by students can be seen on the windows of schools or simply children’s rooms in the windows of residential buildings.

• 

  War in Ukraine – 10.03.2022

  Let’s finish today in Budapest – in the hope and prayer that tomorrow we won’t have to show and see another destroyed maternity hospital, another hospital, a school… somewhere in a war-torn country.

  Author: Nikolay Permyakov