On 13 July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree transferring the Russian subsidiaries of Dutch paint and coatings manufacturer Akzo Nobel to the temporary management of JSC Razvitie Stroitelnykh Aktivov (RSA). The order covers shares in three entities: Akzo Nobel Dekor, Akzo Nobel Coatings, and Akzo Nobel Lakokraska. RSA is the same Moscow-registered company that assumed control of Danish insulation producer Rockwool’s Russian operations in late 2025 and, according to business daily Kommersant, also took over the local assets of Polish-American can maker CanPack. The company’s ownership is not disclosed in the state register; its general director is Timur Amirov.

Akzo Nobel stated that it is studying the decree and assessing its consequences, while reiterating that after EU sanctions were imposed in 2022 it significantly curtailed its Russian activities, localising the remaining decorative paints business and operating it without financial support from the parent. However, Dutch newspaper NRC reported that the Russian subsidiaries’ revenue grew by 8 per cent in 2023 and that they paid approximately €16 million in profit tax during the first two years of the war. Moscow’s official rationale for such temporary management measures, set out in a series of presidential decrees, frames them as a response to the seizure or restriction of Russian property abroad by “unfriendly” states.

The transfer consolidates a pattern in which foreign-owned industrial assets are placed under a single, state-linked entity. Investigative reports by The Bell indicate that RSA is connected to the state corporation Rostec. Under Amirov’s management, the Russian Rockwool subsidiary transferred 600 million roubles to the All-Russia People’s Front for the purchase of drones, electronic warfare equipment and communications gear for the Russian military, and Amirov announced that the company would resume cooperation with the Russian defence industry that the Danish parent had halted in 2022. The combined revenue of the three Akzo Nobel entities stood at 17 billion roubles in 2025, down from 20.7 billion a year earlier, according to The Bell’s analysis of corporate filings.

The decree is the latest in a series of such asset transfers that began after February 2022 and have affected companies including Fortum, Uniper, Danone, Carlsberg, Bosch and Ariston; some of those decisions, such as the ones concerning Danone and Ariston, were later reversed. Akzo Nobel has not indicated whether it will pursue legal or diplomatic channels to challenge the move. The dossier remains open, with the immediate next step being the operational handover of the three subsidiaries to RSA management.