Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this Monday to swiftly transfer companies located in the Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia in September to Russian jurisdiction, which in practice means selling Ukrainian assets.
The law stipulates that individual entrepreneurs based in the four eastern and southern provinces of Ukraine – Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporijia and Kherson – must register with the Russian Unified System of Legal Entities by June 30.
Companies, in turn, must do the same before December 31 next year.
In addition, companies from Donetsk and Lugansk must comply with Russian law corresponding to their incorporation documents from the same date, while those from Zaporijia and Kherson must comply with Russian law from June 30, 2024.
The Kremlin had announced in October that it was clear that the government would have to address this issue, given that there are “abandoned assets” in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, which “of course cannot stand still”. .
“We have to activate them. Someone has to put them on their balance sheet,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.
“This is completely normal because it is the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said, despite the fact that Russia does not fully control any of the four provinces.
“In Crimea, there were owners who renounced their property when the peninsula became Russian. Many, not all, were invited to claim their rights and register their companies under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation,” he said.
Therefore, he added, “there is already a precedent” in this regard.
“Properties, in any case, have owners, and everyone has the right, according to Russian law, to claim their rights to this or that property, but already based on the fact that it is the territory of the Russian Federation,” explains Peskov.
Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine on February 24, occupying some territories it had announced its annexation, but without recognition from the international community, which condemned the invasion and imposed unprecedented sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Source: DN
