Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Presidential Decree No. 193, signed by President Vladimir Putin on 25 March 2026 and in force from 1 May 2026, prohibits the export from Russia of refined gold bars (аффинированное золото в слитках) with a total weight exceeding 100 grams by individuals, legal entities, and individual entrepreneurs. Narrow exceptions apply for EAEU-destination and non-EAEU-destination movements through designated international airports (Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Knevichi/Vladivostok) conditional on Federal Assay Office or Federal Border Service permits. The stated rationale — curbing shadow-economy use of bullion as a foreign-currency substitute and closing capital-flight channels — is analytically inseparable from the broader post-2022 Russia counter-sanctions context and the G7 / LBMA delisting of Russian-origin gold.

Presidential Decree No. 593 of 25 August 2025 amends the standing schedule of foreign-owned Russian assets under "temporary management" (established by Decree No. 302 of 25 April 2023), adding as item 44 the 314,949 thousand ordinary shares of JSC Chelyabenergoremont held by Fortum Holding B.V. (the Dutch holding vehicle of Finnish state-controlled utility Fortum), transferring control to Rosimushchestvo (Federal Agency for State Property Management). Fortum was the sole shareholder, so the decree effectively nationalises the entire company — a 70-year-old turbine and boiler-equipment maintenance and repair service provider for power plants, with reported 2023 revenue of RUB 2.35bn. The decree entered into force on its date of official publication and is one of a running series of company-specific amendments to Decree 302 following Fortum's 2022-23 exit announcement and the earlier seizure of its main generation subsidiary Fortum Russia B.V. (renamed Fora Energy) and of Unipro.

Russia Federal Law No. 127-FZ of 4 June 2018 "On measures (countermeasures) regarding the unfriendly actions of the United States of America and other foreign states" establishes the statutory authority under which the President and Government of the Russian Federation may impose counter-measures against states that engage in "unfriendly actions" toward Russia. The law enumerates permissible countermeasure categories — including import/export prohibitions, restrictions on foreign participation in Russian state procurement, suspension of international cooperation obligations, and prohibition of foreign-company services and transactions — and delegates implementation authority to the President (primary) and Government. It entered into force on the day of official publication (4 June 2018) and is the foundational parent statute for every major Russian counter-sanctions presidential decree and government resolution subsequently issued, including the gas-for-roubles payment regime, capital controls, parallel- imports authorisation, and asset-confiscation counter-mechanism.