Putin places German retailer Metro's Russian business under temporary management

At the end of September 2026, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing the Russian business of the German wholesale and retail group Metro under temporary management. Reports dated the decree to 28 September. It named a company called Torg Rus as temporary manager of Metro's Russian operating and property units. The decree gave no reason for the move.

The measure rests on a 2023 presidential decree that lets the state take temporary control of assets owned by firms from countries Moscow calls "unfriendly". Metro formally kept ownership of its Russian subsidiary, but it lost operational control. Media noted that Torg Rus had been registered only weeks before the decree.

Metro followed other Western-owned retailers and food companies, including France's Auchan, which had been put under similar regimes shortly before. The case mattered because Metro was one of the largest remaining German companies in Russia, and it showed that staying in the market after 2022 did not protect foreign businesses from Kremlin intervention. It is now a reference point in debates over how German firms should handle their Russian assets.