Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, derided Danish brewer Carlsberg (CSE:CARLb) on Wednesday for assuming it could exit Russia without consequences in the midst of Western sanctions targeting Moscow for its Ukraine invasion.
Carlsberg’s CEO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen, asserted on Tuesday that Russia had effectively expropriated its business interests. This claim arose after President Vladimir Putin granted temporary control of Carlsberg’s majority stake in the Russian brewery Baltika to the Russian federal government in July.
While Russia maintains that this move did not alter the ownership structure, Carlsberg declared the termination of all licensing agreements with Baltika and expressed no intent to engage in any deal with Moscow that would legitimize the expropriation.
Medvedev, once regarded as a liberal reformer but now serving as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, used profane language in a Telegram post to taunt the brewer, saying, “Like their counterparts in the Western world, they abandoned their Russian commitments for political reasons, refused to fulfill their obligations to Russian contractors. And they assumed they’d be left alone. ‘We’ll impose sanctions, provide weapons to the Ukrainian regime, but don’t touch our property, or at least allow us to profitably sell it’.”
Carlsberg suspended investments in Russia shortly after the Ukraine invasion and had been attempting to divest Baltika since the prior year, following the example of numerous other Western corporations withdrawing from Russia.
At the time, Carlsberg had eight breweries and approximately 8,400 employees in Russia, and it incurred a 9.9 billion Danish crown ($1.4 billion) write-down on Baltika in the preceding year.
