Putin orders the confiscation of stakes in Austrian and German companies in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued directives to confiscate shares worth billions of dollars in the German company Wintershall Dea and the Austrian Oil and Gas Group (OMV) in gas extraction projects in the Russian Arctic.
This confiscation includes shares in the Yuzhno Ruskoye field and in the Akimov projects, as these shares will be transferred to newly established Russian companies.
This move comes as a reaction from the Kremlin to what Putin described as a declaration by the West to wage an economic war against Russia after the events of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
This comes in the context of the freezing of hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian assets in the West, in addition to the freezing of the assets of Russian businessmen and investors.
Presidential decrees indicate that this step is aimed at protecting national interests in light of the West’s illegal and unfriendly actions towards Russian assets.