By John Meyer, consultant in finance – Eurasia Business News, August 4, 2026. Article n°3042

View on Moskva City, the Moscow International Trade Center, where billions of dollars were made every day before the war.
Photo credit : Swann Collins, January 2022

The Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the bill that allows Russian entrepreneurs to refuse to return assets to former foreign owners under buyback agreements in a Russian court. The document comes into force from the date of its official publication.

Refusal will be possible if the buyback agreement was non-market, and the former owner publicly supported anti-Russian sanctions or committed actions to discredit the Russian Armed Forces. The law applies to transactions with investors from unfriendly states concluded after February 22, 2022.

The bill is published on the portal of legal acts of the Russian Federation.

To refuse the return of assets, at least one of the conditions of the two groups of criteria must be met.

The first concerns the actions of a foreign investor: public support for sanctions against the Russian Federation, calls for their imposition, discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, statements about the termination of activities in Russia or improper fulfillment of obligations.

The second criteria is related to the economic parameters of the transaction: a deviation of the buyback price from the market price by at least 25% or additional investments by the Russian acquirer, which made it possible to keep the company running.

The claim for termination of the right to buyback is considered by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region. The current owner of the asset or the relevant ministry can file a lawsuit. A foreign investor will be able to demand compensation within a year after the court decision, but the court has the right to reduce its amount or completely refuse to pay it.

The State Duma adopted the law in the third reading on July 21. Amendments have been made to the law “On Foreign Investments”. The new rules apply only to transactions with investors from unfriendly states, foreign structures controlled by them, as well as Russian legal entities under their control. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the start of the exchange of blocked assets of Russians with foreign investors from unfriendly states back in November 2023.

In March 2022, politicians from the ruling party “United Russia” called to nationalize the Russian assets of Western companies that announced their decision to leave the Russian market because of Western sanctions.

Advertisements

Our community already has nearly 280,000 readers!

Subscribe to our Telegram channel

Follow us on Telegram, Facebook and Twitter

© Copyright 2026 – Eurasia Business News. Article no. 3042