Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that Germany's Wintershall Dea and Austria's OMV be stripped of multibillion-dollar stakes in gas extraction projects in Russia's Arctic. Under the presidential decrees published late on December 19, stakes held by OMV and Wintershall Dea in the Yuzhno-Russkoye field and in the Achimov projects are to revert to newly created Russian companies. The Kremlin's biggest seizure of foreign assets in Russia comes after what Putin casts as a declaration of economic war by the West over Russia's decision to send thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin Orders Seizure Of OMV And Wintershall Dea Stakes In Russian Ventures
A pumpjack of Wintershall DEA extracts crude oil at an old oil field in Emlichheim, Germany.