Overview
- President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday that gives the state the right to place critically important infrastructure under temporary external management if owners fail to protect or quickly repair them.
- The order allows authorities to take control of physical assets, financial holdings and formal ownership rights and to transfer sites to bodies such as the Federal Agency for State Property Management for inventory and oversight.
- The measure specifically covers fuel and energy facilities, industrial sites, communications, transport, logistics hubs and utilities and is presented as a response to a rise in long-range Ukrainian drone and missile attacks.
- Recent strikes have hit major retail warehouses and logistics hubs operated by Wildberries and Ozon and forced a halt at the Perm oil refinery, worsening regional fuel supplies and disrupting supply chains.
- Key details about how regulators will decide which firms are handed over, how long state control will last and how service continuity will be maintained remain unclear and will determine how businesses and consumers are affected next.