German wholesaler and food retailer Metro AG lost operational control of its Russian subsidiary on Monday after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree placing the business under temporary administration. The decree put Metro Cash and Carry’s Russian operations under the management of UK Torg RUS temporarily.
The order, posted on a Russian government website on Monday, did not give a reason for the action. It follows similar moves against the Russian businesses of food company Nestlé and French retailer Auchan under a 2023 decree aimed at businesses associated with “unfriendly countries”.
Temporary administration has also led to local owners taking over the Russian businesses of French dairy company Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg at knockdown prices.
Metro said it still formally owns its Russian subsidiary but no longer has operational control of it as the company is analysing the decree’s consequences, and informed that Torg RUS is owned by Johannes Tholey, CEO of Metro Russia.
Metro also said it had been reducing its ties to the Russian business since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Metro entered the Russian market in 2001 and it operated 91 wholesale stores in Russia, employing approximately 9,000 people there.
Russia remains a significant market for the German wholesaler.
During the first nine months of the 2025/26 financial year, Metro’s sales in Russia rose by 10.3% in euros to €2.14 billion, accounting for roughly 8.7% of Metro AG’s total group sales for the period.
Escalating tensions between Russia and Germany
The move comes amid a deepening diplomatic dispute between Berlin and Moscow.
Germany has concluded that Russia was responsible for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport and has closed a Russian consulate in Bonn and a Russian cultural centre in Berlin.
Russia responded by closing the German consulate in St Petersburg and denied the allegations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met his German counterpart Johann Wadephul on Saturday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly but was dismissive afterwards, saying that Wadephul “simply reiterated his official public position condemning Russia… you can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not.”
Wadephul said the meeting had been necessary to raise Germany’s security concerns directly with Russia, but that he had sensed no seriousness from the Russian side, reiterating that the talks did not signal any change in Germany’s support for Ukraine.
“The Russians are raising the pressure on Germany in their hybrid war,” said Stefan Meister, a Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
“It’s being made clear that the Germans could lose even more companies and assets in Russia, in order to raise pressure on the German government from the German business community,” Meister added.
He also explained that Russia sees Germany “as a key adversary since it is Ukraine’s most important single supporter.”
Some major Western businesses ceased operating in Russia and wrote off their businesses after 2022. Since then, the Kremlin has imposed burdensome conditions on the sale of local affiliates, requiring steep discounts, exit taxes and government approval.
Other companies have scaled back their operations, while some continue to do business as usual.