An American entrepreneur instasted President Trump to assist save his canned meals empire of $ 200 million after the Russian authorities took over his firm and seized their belongings.
Leonid Smirnov, primarily based in Los Angeles, who fled from Soviet communism within the 1970s, says he’s in a race towards time to avoid wasting Glavprodukt, the Campbell de Russia, which he based in 1999 and have become a household identify in his homeland.
“What is going on with my firm is a raid underneath an try to seizure and confiscation of the federal government,” he advised The Publish.
And if it might probably occur to him, he stated in a warning to Trump, he can occur to any of the tons of of US -owned firms working in Russia, after President Vladimir Putin devoted himself to overseas firms after the invasion of Ukraine.
Round a dozen firms have been put underneath “short-term administration” within the final three years. Smirnov Glavprodukt was the primary American property firm to be attacked, and is legendary all through the homeland for its soups, greens, fish and canned meat.
And it was a key a part of the Smirnov enterprise empire, which features a $ 20 million mansion and 14,000 sq. ft and Tuscan type that when rented by Paris Hilton in Tony Beverly Park in Los Angeles.
Issues modified in October final yr, when three strangers reached their headquarters to take care.
They had been despatched by Putin orders. His decree ordered that Glavprodukt and different belongings owned by the American firm of Smirnov are put underneath “short-term” Russian administration.
Since then, he stated, the corporate primarily based in Moscow, which used 1,000 employees in three factories, had begun to take losses for the primary time. Basically, it estimates that the corporate has misplaced as much as 30 % of its worth.
“We principally have this firm destroyed each day,” stated Smirnov, describing how key staff have been fired for not being loyal sufficient.
Within the final month, the nation’s lawyer normal accused him of illegally similating thousands and thousands of to the US and becoming a member of Washington to hunt the “strategic defeat” of Russia. He supplied partially obscured pictures of himself to the publication, saying that he now fears for the protection of his household and his household.
Two weeks in the past, a court docket ordered the seizure of money and belongings associated to Glavprodukt. Russian prosecutors claimed that he had been sending dividends illegally from enterprise to the US.
The whole lot was a part of a strain marketing campaign, stated Smirnov, forcing him to promote at a demolition worth.
“I put 26 years of my life in that … constructing this firm from scratch,” stated Smirnov.
“And I’ve 1,000 individuals, some had been with me for greater than 20 years. It is like a household.”
He stated that the second of the preliminary seizure was not a coincidence, weeks earlier than final yr’s elections.
“If Kamala Harris had received the elections, I do not suppose that I, my firm or some other American enterprise in Russia would have a single alternative, to be saved,” he stated.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has stated that Glavprodukt can be a part of any dialog about restoring relations between the US and Russia.
“There are alternatives to work collectively, and clearly that may indicate speaking not just for Russian belongings which have been seized by Europeans or the USA. Uu. Or what you’ve, but in addition US firms which have been injured,” he stated.
However Smirnov fears that his firm will not exist by then. He desires Trump to intervene and ship a transparent message to Moscow that American property firms are out of limits.
“I’m asking President Trump to become involved and save my firm, besides all different US firms,” he stated.