A Moscow court has ruled to nationalize Domodedovo International Airport over allegations that the facility had come under foreign control, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Tuesday.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Domodedovo and its co-owners after reviewing the airport’s privatization documents, the publication reported earlier this year.
In February, a court granted Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporary control of key services at Domodedovo, effectively marking a state seizure of the country’s third-busiest airport.
Moscow’s Court of Arbitration on Tuesday ordered the ownership of DME Holding, a conglomerate of 25 companies valued at more than 1 trillion rubles ($12.7 billion), to be transferred to the Russian state.
Russian-born Dmitry Kamenshchik, who is reported to hold Turkish and UAE passports, and Valery Kogan, a Moscow-born Israeli citizen, were identified as DME Holding’s ultimate beneficial owners.
Kamenshchik and Kogan were accused of transferring 18 billion rubles ($228 million) of Domodedovo’s profits abroad between 2021 and 2023, according to media reports. Russian law bans foreign involvement in “strategic” industries without prior government approval.
Kommersant said the court ruling was subject to “immediate execution” without indicating whether it could be appealed.
Domodedovo’s press service has not yet commented on the news.
The airport has faced repeated investigations from Russian law enforcement authorities over the years.
As of spring 2024, the Russian government nationalized an estimated 1 trillion rubles worth of “strategic assets” since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years earlier.
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