The Russian government plans to sell Moscow’s Domodedovo airport early next year, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday, several months after taking ownership of the facility over allegations it had come under foreign control.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov did not explain why the government was now planning to sell the airport, Russia’s fourth busiest, but said “a lot of work” had been done on Domodedovo and that officials were aware of potential bidders.
“Next year, I think, literally at the beginning of the year, [Domodedovo] will be auctioned off,” Siluanov said in an interview on state television, adding that it would be an open auction.
In June, a court ruled to transfer ownership of Domodedovo to the state after determining its two owners — Dmitry Kamenshchik and Valery Kogan — were foreign residents who had no right to manage the airport.
Andrei Ivanov, a former government minister who took control of the airport following its nationalization, told the RBK news outlet in July that Domodedovo was in significant debt and was seeking a new owner.
The Russian government has seized billions of dollars’ worth of assets since 2022, including those belonging to Western firms like French dairy group Danone and German energy firm Uniper.
Officials argue that the nationalizations are fair and a remedy for botched privatizations that took place during the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Critics, however, say the seizures have harmed long-term investment in Russia.
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