Four months after nationalization
Two Carlsberg managers arrested in Russia
November 16, 2023, 4:23 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
In the summer, Russian President Putin signed a decree that nationalized the Baltika breweries, which belonged to the Carlsberg Group. Without the knowledge of the Danes. Now two top managers are arrested. They are said to have illegally acquired rights to the detriment of the Russian state.
Several months after the controversial nationalization of Carlsberg’s brewery business in Russia, two top managers there have been arrested. Dennis Scherstennikov and Anton Rogachevski, who are said to be the ex-president and current vice-president of the famous Baltika breweries, which until the summer belonged to the Danish Carlsberg group, are accused of particularly serious fraud, reported the Russian agency Interfax . This involves company rights that the two men allegedly acquired illegally and thus caused damage to the Russian state, which currently manages the breweries.
Carlsberg rejected the allegations as false. “It is frightening that the Russian state’s efforts to justify the illegal takeover of our businesses in Russia are now leading to innocent employees being targeted,” the Danish news agency Ritzau quoted a company statement as saying.
Carlsberg is one of the largest brewing companies in the world. A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company announced in March 2022 that it would withdraw completely from Russia and sell its Baltika brewery business there. Baltika is considered the largest beer brewer in Russia. In the summer of 2023, Carlsberg announced that it had found a buyer for its Russian business. A little later, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin signed a decree that nationalized the breweries without the knowledge or consent of the Danes.
After the decree was signed, the Danish company announced that it would no longer have control over the management or operation of the Baltika breweries in Russia. Other companies were also confronted with similar steps by Russia and were placed under state administration, such as Danone Russia.