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Several foreign companies including Toyota, Nike and home
furnishings retailer IKEA have announced temporary shutdowns of
stores and factories in Russia in order to put pressure on the
Kremlin to stop its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
In a statement published on Monday evening on the United Russia
website, the secretary of the ruling party's general council
Andrei Turchak said that shutting operations was a "war" against
the citizens of Russia.
The statement mentioned Finnish privately-owned food companies
Fazer, Valio and Paulig as the latest to announce closures in
Russia.
"United Russia proposes nationalising production plants of the
companies that announce their exit and the closure of production
in Russia during the special operation in Ukraine," Turchak
said.
"This is an extreme measure, but we will not tolerate being
stabbed in the back, and we will protect our people. This is a
real war, not against Russia as a whole, but against our
citizens," he said.
"We will take tough retaliatory measures, acting in accordance
with the laws of war," Turchak said.
Fazer and Valio did not wish to comment when contacted by
Reuters. Paulig did not respond.
Fazer, which makes chocolate, bread and pastries, has three
bakeries in St Petersburg and one in Moscow, employing around
2,300 people.
Valio has one cheese factory and employs 400 people in Russia,
and Paulig has a coffee roastery and employs 200 people in the
country.
Last week, non-NATO member Finland, which shares a border with
Russia, agreed to strengthen security ties with the United
States as it nervously watches Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by
Essi Lehto, editing by Ed Osmond)
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