‘Metals king’ urges Putin not to take country back 100 years

A RUSSIAN billionaire behind one of the world’s biggest metal producers has broken cover to criticise Vladimir Putin’s plan to nationalise assets left behind by fleeing Western companies.

Vladimir Potanin, the “metals king” who is the biggest investor in Norilsk Nickel, said such a move would take Russia back to the chaotic days of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

His comments come as a growing number of companies pull out of Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, with the Kremlin saying it was looking at potentially seizing or nationalising their assets in response.

But Mr Potanin, one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen with a fortune of $22bn (£17bn), said this would destroy investor confidence.

“We should not try to ‘slam the door’ but endeavour to preserve Russia’s economic position in those markets which we spent so long cultivating,” the 61-year-old wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“It would take us back 100 years to 1917 and the consequences – a global lack of confidence in Russia from investors – we would feel for many decades.”

Russia’s economy is facing its gravest crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union after Western countries led by the US imposed crushing sanctions as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine.

That has also prompted a string of major brands, from Mcdonald’s to Coca-cola and Starbucks, to either suspend their operations in Russia or leave the country altogether.

In response, key Putin ally Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president and prime minister, said the government was “already working on measures that include bankruptcy and nationalisation of the property” of foreign companies that refuse to keep trading there.

Mr Potanin is a former high-ranking Soviet trade official and diplomat who made his fortune in the 1990s through the privatisation deals struck by Boris Yeltsin’s administration. He is the biggest shareholder in Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and refined nickel, with about a third of the shares. He also co-founded Onixem Bank and has stakes in pharmaceutical firm Petrovax and the Rosa Khutor ski resort, near Sochi, according to