WASHINGTON – Leonid Smirnov, the American business leader whose Glavproduct was seized by the Kremlin, is calling for President Donald Trump to step in and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to correct the situation.
“My message to President Trump is my company. It's certainly going to be destroyed. Because those who enter are like parasites on a big container ship or like a Boeing 747 monkeys. There's no saving. They're acting, and it's been destroyed,” Smirnov said in an interview with Breitbart News this week. “They classify documents, classify notaries as public. They change the bylaws without the right to do so. They are thinking of ways to steal this company and steal it. He came in and didn't try to maintain the status quo. No, they're coming in and trying to steal it.”
Smirnov, a legal immigrant who came to the United States during the Cold War, fled the Soviet Union decades ago, built glavproduct for decades. Canning Company is owned by American Company Universal Beverage Co. and specializes in the production of canned foods. It makes some of Russia's most famous brands, but it was at least until October, but owned by Americans. In October, Putin's administration effectively used blueprints that it used to take control of other major Western brands operating within Russia, including dairy farmer Danone and beer giant Carlsberg. It has been seized. But GlavProduct was the first US-owned company Putin seized, and when Democrats were now predicting confidence that former Vice President Kamala Harris would win in November, he made it a US presidential election. I did it just before.
The way the Russians did this is to classify many countries as “friendly” to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Companies operating in Russia are associated with so-called “friendly” countries. The US, like most of Europe, is at the top of the list, but is taken over by the Russian government and called temporary control.
The Kremlin probably put Glavproduct into temporary control, but Smirnov told Breitbart News that the people it brought to run had no experience running such a company and instead “expropriated”.
“The company is being destroyed as we're talking now,” he told Breitbart News. “It's simply being destroyed.”
Both Trump and Putin are likely to meet soon to discuss ongoing peace talks regarding Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, for peace negotiations held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia earlier this week. Trump has also recently escalated rhetoric against Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky to show that the US is changing course after a failed Democratic-led under the current former president of the Joe Biden administration.
In addition to leading the Russians to the negotiation table so far, Trump's administration has secured the release hostages of a 28-year-old American on marijuana possession charges in the country. But with regard to the bigger concessions from the Russians, things like the handling of Glavproduct's government acquisition in Russia are not public at least, but two sides have personally discussed such things. There is always a possibility.
The White House has not yet weighed GlavProduct, but a State Department spokesman told Breitbart News after initial talk about the issue of an interview with businessman and veteran Erik Prince, and the Putin administration has cited the American company. He said he was “lightly empty” to take it.
“President Putin's intense actions are as lightly empty as they are not surprised,” a State Department spokesman said. “Wide, we can see that Russia's creptokratic environment undermines fair competition and the rule of law, making legitimate companies more susceptible to fear and seizures of property.”
Smirnov, who is beginning to talk more, hopes that the public's attention on this will catch Trump's eye and spur him to act. In addition to this interview with Breitbart News, he wrote Op-Ed in Washington Times This week we'll explain what happened to GlavProduct. He said to Breitbart News that he feared that if Putin finally escapes this, he would be the following: He said he was there.
“My message to President Trump is asking President Trump to be involved and ask Putin to ask him to remove this status from my company, so I can save it. 26 years will be destroyed. And they take another American company with others and of course we take all the millions of dollars I have paid to the US Treasury over the years, so we're good for them. It would be an example. But most importantly, I lose my company, and I would be a good example for them to continue attacks on American companies in Russia, with American investors. ”
Smirnov hopes that Trump will see this interview and act in such a way that he can pressure Putin to change this now.
“I want to ask if President Trump is willing to negotiate the agenda to protect American businesses in Russia, so that won't be “temporary control,” which is under “forfeiture” No, that's not. American businessmen are subject to all sorts of restrictions to protect us,” Smirnov said. If Trump doesn't take action right away, there's the possibility of a chopping block:
“There are 350 American companies, including PepsiCo. This includes Philip Morris, including Mars,” Smirnov said. “These are the big companies that exist there. They took away the big European companies, so they're next. Danon is the milk giant and Carlsberg is the beer giant.”
