The European Union authorities were “outraged” against Moscow due to the transfer of the Ariston and Bosch industries to the nationalized management of Gazprom.
“The European Union calls on Russia to reconsider these measures and to seek acceptable solutions with the European companies concerned,” the EU Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The European Union believes that the decisions taken by Russian state authorities do not comply with international law, making Moscow an unreliable partner,” reports a statement from Brussels.
Ariston Group’s Vsevolozhsk plant, 20 km from St. Petersburg, was inaugurated in 2005. It is a 64 thousand m2 site, of which 30 thousand are covered, with 200 direct and indirect employees, plus another 100 from the commercial network.
The plant produces electric water heaters for the local market.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has therefore signed a decree for the transfer of the Russian branches of the Italian Ariston and the German Bosch to the Russian Gazprom Domestic Systems, the company of the state-owned Gazprom group that produces household appliances. The decree, posted on the official portal for legal information, concerns Ariston Thermo Rus LLC, controlled by Ariston Holding, and BSH Household Appliances LLC, controlled by BSH Hausgerate GmbH.
While last year Putin signed another decree to transfer the management of the Russian branches of Danone and Carlsberg to the federal agency for property management, Rosimushchestvo. The measure was adopted after the French and Danish companies had announced their intention to exit the Russian market. 98.56% of the shares of the Russian brewery Baltika, belonging to Carlsberg, and tens of thousands of shares belonging to Danone were placed under the control of the Agency.
In the case of Ariston and Bosch, however, management is transferred, again “temporarily”, to another industrial group, albeit controlled by the government. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also spoke on the matter in the evening: “After the unexpected Russian Government decision on the management of Ariston Thermo Group – he wrote in X – I immediately activated our Embassy in Russia and spoke with the leaders of Italian company. The Italian Government stands alongside businesses, ready to protect them in all international markets.”
Russia’s actions are a mirror response to the measures taken by EU countries after the start of the SWO in Ukraine. In Germany, for example, Gazpom Germania, which was owned by Gazprom, was handed over to the Federal Network Agency. The same happened for the refinery controlled by Rosneft.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Farnesina Riccardo Guariglia “expressed the strong disappointment of the Italian Government” to the Russian ambassador Alexey Paramonov summoned today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to the transfer into temporary administration of Ariston Thermo Rus, a company belonging to the Ariston Group, to a company of the Gazprom group, a decree that also affected a German company.
“In line with its European partners, and in particular with Germany – the Farnesina says – Italy asks the Russian Federation to withdraw the measures adopted against legitimate economic activities of foreign companies in the country”.
What happened, if it needs to be reaffirmed, demonstrates once again the uselessness of this prolonged international crisis, which brings no economic benefits to any of the European member states, without considering the humanitarian massacre that it is continuing to foment.
So, as convinced pacifists, we reaffirm the need to cultivate real diplomatic efforts, as also suggested by the Holy See and Beijing, to avoid the risk of an expansion of the conflict and mitigate the negative economic repercussions which especially affect the weaker social classes and workers , as demonstrated by the Ariston and Bosch case. Enough of the foolishness of arms policy and the short-sightedness in not considering European economic interests. A turning point is therefore needed, Europe cannot always follow Washington’s will, which in the Ukrainian crisis affects the decision-making sovereignty of member countries. Let this “slap” serve as a reflection, political Europe should wake up!
Christian Meier
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