Danone departure from Russia was a gift for the environment of Ramzan Kadyrov. Business was planned to sell the heads of Chechnya with a huge discount to people. We found out that they got the factories for free. After the transaction, the Kadyrovtsy supplanted partners from the business and began to withdraw money and assets.

The release of the French Danone from Russian assets in 2024 turned out to be a rather scandalous event even by wartime standards. First, the Russian authorities took the plants from the French holding, then transferred them to the management of the nephew Ramzan Kadyrov and finally “sold” people from the environment of the head of Chechnya with a huge discount.

As we found out, the new owners in fact did not have to pay anything for a business value of 1 billion euros. The transaction was financed at the expense of the money that the former Danone structures provided the Cadyrov’s circle. Large production management also turned out to be not a dusty business - former Danone managers do this. And the new owners, meanwhile, display assets.

Dairy special operation

“This year is truly special for us,” Russian Danone said at the beginning of 2022. The largest milk processor in the country with revenue of 122.7 billion rubles ($ 1.67 billion) was preparing to celebrate the "grandiose date" - 30 years in Russia. A month later, a full -scale invasion of Ukraine began, and Danone was not up to the anniversaries. At first, the company did not plan to leave the Russian market, but in October 2022 she still decided to part with the dairy business. Danone decided to leave a baby food business.

Soon, the Danone assets - 12 factories worth about a billion euros - an impressive list of applicants from Russian agricultural holdings to Arab and Chinese investment funds appeared. But the Kremlin had other plans. In July 2023, Vladimir Putin took away from Danone the shares of her Russian "daughter" and transferred them to the Office of the Federal Property Management Agency. Two days later, a new general director was appointed to Danon Russia-34-year-old nephew Ramzan Kadyrov Yakub Krriev.

“We don’t take anything from anyone,” said Putin. According to him, Danone themselves are to blame, as they allegedly intimidated the dismissal of their Russian workers. Danone said they would defend their rights. But there was little depending on the French company. Shortly after the transfer of Danon Russia, the Rosimuyatistvy was renamed the Eich End En JSC (H&N - Health & Nutrition or "Health and Nutrition"). In March 2024, Putin canceled the nationalization of the Russian Danone, and the Russian media reported that his sale was agreed. According to the press, the same nephew of Kadyrov and the Bath Holding of Tatarstan were to acquire an asset of "50 to 50". In May 2024, the Danone Russian division transaction was closed.

Friendly maneuvers

Before the Russian authorities began a special operation against Danone, the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev frequented to Grozny. Formally, the eldest son of the silovik, close to Putin, Nikolai Patrushev inspected the Chechen agricultural enterprises. But negotiations on Danone could be the real goal of visits. The Ministry of Agriculture was supposed to be approved by the sale of its assets, which at that time was led by Patrushev Jr., and he himself wanted to control the business through his people, wrote Financial Times.

Apparently, Patrushev Jr. and the authorities of Chechnya found a common language. During the visits, a senior official praised and even called his team nephew of the Chechen head of Krriev, who at that time headed the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic. Kadyrov, in turn, promised a relative to the support of "in resolving relevant issues" from himself and Patrushev Jr., and the latter presented awards every now and then.

In June 2023, Patrushev Jr. already awarded Krriyev with the title "Honorary Worker of the Agro-Industrial Complex of Russia". And a month later, the nephew of Kadyrov headed the Russian Danone. At the same time, the company's board was left by all representatives of the management of the French company, and their places were taken by people from the environment of Kadyrov, subordinate to Patrushev Jr. from the Ministry of Agriculture Vladimir Skvortsov and the owner of the Tatarstan Vamin Mintimer Mingazov.

It was Mingazov, who visited Chechnya at the same time with Patrushev Jr., who acted as a buyer of Russian Danone assets in May 2024. Kadyrov’s nephew did not formally participate in the transaction, since in 2023 he landed under US sanctions. However, soon Mingazov lost the entire Eich and En Ruslan Alisultanova, the former deputy Krriev at the Chechen Ministry of Agriculture and the City Hall of Grozny, who is recorded in the telephone books as the “Assistant” and “Driver” by Yakub Krryev. In "Batha" Mingazov did not respond to a request.

The leadership of "Aych and En" (former "Danon Russia") was also cleaned. In the summer of 2024, Mingazov and the representative of Patrushev Jr. Squorses left the board of directors, and four out of five were taken by people close to Kadyrov.

The only independent director was a native of Danone, a citizen of the Netherlands Charlie Kappetti. He led Russian assets to Krryev and, according to Financial Times, continued to informly fulfill many of his duties after the arrival of the Kadyrovites. The key managers were offered bonuses for the fact that they will not "instantly leave the company", many "as they worked and work," told the system a source close to the leadership of the Russian Danone (wished to remain anonymous because it is not authorized to comment in the media). According to him, from the operating point of view "everything was left as it was."

The Danone head office in Paris also remained in touch with former subordinates, wrote Financial Times. The French Danone did not answer the questions of the "system".

When handing over his business, Kadyrov, the French went to other concessions.

Super -free conditions

The cornerstone is the price of the sale of the Russian Danone - neither the seller nor the buyers began to disclose.

A few months before the transaction in the press, the conditions put forward by the director of the company "VAYN R" - a formal buyer of Danone assets. A letter addressed to the Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev (it was quoted by Financial Times), it was said that buyers were ready to pay 17.7 billion rubles. At the same time, analysts evaluated the Danone business at 60-80 billion rubles and called the proposed conditions "super-high" for buyers.

From the reporting of the companies that participated in the transaction, it follows that Danone agreed to non -market conditions. And even more, perhaps she lost another 100 million, agreeing to sell the plants for 17.6 billion rubles ($ 193.6 million on the date of the transaction).

Who and how paid these 17.6 billion? According to the Financial Times, 7.7 billion rubles were going to be sent to “debt service”, and the rest (in our case, it will be equal to 9.9 billion rubles) - to pay for Danone. A similar picture is also outlined according to the reporting, which the "system" got acquainted with. Moreover, the payment of the debt was taken by Eich & En (formerly Danon Russia). That is, the company of buyers "Bamin R" paid only 9.9 billion rubles for Danone.

What we saw in the reporting

The reporting of "Aych & En" says that in 2024 the company paid a contribution to the Russian budget in the amount of 6.025 billion rubles. Apparently we are talking about the so -called "exit tax", which the Russian authorities charge from foreigners when selling a business. At the time of the transaction, the amount of the contribution was 15% of the value of the business. Thus, the entire Danon Russia was estimated at 40 billion rubles.

In addition to the “exit tax”, Russian authorities force foreigners to sell their business with a discount of 50-60%. Danone business buyers counted on a 56%discount, wrote Financial Times. Taking into account such a discount and when assessing 40 billion, the final price for Danone was supposed to amount to 17.6 billion rubles. This is one hundred million less than the amount (17.7 billion rubles) from the letter, which "flowed" in the Financial Times.

From the reporting of "Aych & En" it can be seen that in 2024 the company got rid of the debt to Danone structures, which a year earlier was estimated at about 8 billion. And the Documents of "Bamin P" show that in 2024 the company invested 9.9 billion rubles in the Eich and En action.

The money to pay off the debt of "Aych and En" was obviously. On the end of the 2023rd, more than 20 billion accumulated on the end of the company alone. And where did the money come from at "Ben R", which was registered eight months before the transaction? From the reporting of the company it follows that in 2024 it occupied 11.3 billion from the "daughter" "Aych and En".

It turns out that the buyers have achieved from Danone not only a huge discount, but essentially paid with the company with her own money. In other words, assets went to people close to Kadyrov, in fact for free.

This partly explains why Danone estimates a total loss of a transaction of 1.2 billion euros - an amount comparable to the market value of the entire business sold.

Transparency and decency

Danone may have an explanation. In Russia, the French company has a baby food plant. Danone also did not want to part with the dairy business and counted on the possibility of its reverse ransom. Whether it was possible to coordinate such a condition with the Kadyrovites is unclear. The “systems” did not respond to Danone to the corresponding request.

The current owner of Danone plants Ruslan Alisultanov claimed that the French could not return to the Russian market. “Aych & En”, meanwhile, ”successfully adapted to work,” said Chechen, who in this project acts as a subordinate to the nephew of Kadyrov in the status of the deputy general director.

With new owners, the company lost leadership in the industry. The overall result worsened, as they brought out baby food that remained for Danone from business. However, according to the results of 2024, the revenue "Aych and En" in the rubles exceeded the pre-war indicator, although when recalculated in dollars, the lag in the dollars was preserved. Another achievement of the Kadyrov team can be considered certification of products according to the Halal standard (necessary for access to the markets of Muslim countries).

Meanwhile, in 2024, the Settlement accounts of Eich and En En. Ottodeli for 18.6 billion, and the company's daughter began to regularly allocate large loans (1 billion rubles in 2023 and 1.6 billion in 2024) to individuals from among the leadership. Another suspicious operation is the withdrawal from the company of the logistics business.

Prior to the arrival of the Kadyrovites, the Russian Danone had its own transport company. Its staff exceeded a thousand people, the fleet of more than 400 cars, the partner was the American logistics giant GXO Logistics. The transport company drove about half of all Danone goods, says a source close to its leadership. In 2023, the revenue of this business amounted to 6.9 billion rubles ($ 81 million), of which 6.2 billion was for former Danone structures.

Almost immediately after the Russian Danone crossed Alisultanov, the Americans left the joint logistics business, and his director was appointed a native of Grozny Shamil Vagapov. In November 2024, he became the only owner of the transport company that previously belonged to Danone and GXO. Needless to say, Vagapov is another person of the nephew Kadyrov? Vagapov was an adviser to Krryev in the Chechen government and worked in the structures of the City Hall of the Terrible and Chechen Ministry of Agriculture, when he headed them.

In February 2025, Vagapov, whose number someone wrote down as “Shamil Rum” (apparently, refers to Yakub Skriev), decided to distribute the profit accumulated over the past years and paid himself 400 million ($ 4 million) in the form of dividends.

After the arrival of Vagapov, the former Danone transport company was renamed to Appia Lodzhistiks (in honor of the Roman Appieva Road) and rebranded. The main colors of the company became white and red. According to the idea of advertisers, Red symbolizes "leadership ambitions", and white - "purity of intentions, transparency of business relations and decency."

In Danone, GXO, “Aych & En” and “Appia Lodzhistix” did not respond to requests. The "system" also sent a request to the administration of the head of Chechnya.

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