Russian authorities have confiscated assets worth 550 billion rubles ($7.59 billion) linked to jailed billionaire Vadim Moshkovich and transferred them to state ownership, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, in what appears to be the largest asset seizure of Russia's recent wave of nationalizations.
Moshkovich, 58, founder of major agricultural producer Rusagro and ranked 51st on Forbes Russia's list of the country's wealthiest businessmen, has been held in pre-trial detention since March last year. Former Rusagro Chief Executive Maxim Basov was also arrested in connection with the case.
The seizure underscores the scale of the Kremlin's campaign to bring private assets under state control since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a drive that has already transferred businesses worth an estimated 6.5 trillion rubles ($89.7 billion) to government ownership.
The Interior Ministry said its investigation into Moshkovich had been completed and that all property seized in the case had been "transferred to state revenue."
In May, Moscow's Khamovniki District Court ordered the nationalization of Rusagro, one of Russia's largest agricultural companies. Rusagro is the country's second-largest pork producer, third-largest sugar producer and controls more than 800,000 hectares of agricultural land.
