Sen. James Lankford of R-Okla will discuss whether a “big beautiful bill” will be passed, including tax cuts, a call to raise debt caps and concerns to cease fire to concerns about Russia.
The Americans who fled the Soviet Union in the 1970s and built a $200 million canned food empire are asking President Donald Trump to rescue his company after Russian authorities seized their businesses and their assets.
Leonid Smirnov of Los Angeles, California told the New York Post that he was racing to save his company, GlavProdukt, to become known as Russia’s Campbell in 1999.
Smirnov said what was happening to his company was “a raid under government attempts to seize and forfeiture.”
He also warned that if that could happen to him, it could happen to hundreds of US-powered companies in Russia, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered him to invade Ukraine, and then Russian President Vladimir Putin began targeting foreign companies.
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Photos taken on February 1, 2022 show the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (R) of the Bodvac Bodnaya Tower in the Kremlin (L) and the Russian building in Moscow. ((Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova via Getty Images/AFP)/Getty Images)
Over the past three years, almost 12 companies have been placed under the “temporary control” of Russian authorities, with GlavProdukt being the first to be targeted.
GlavProdukt has become known in Russia for its canned soups, vegetables, fish and meat.
The company was also an important part of the Smirnov Empire, including a 14,000-square-foot, $20 million mansion rented by Paris Hilton in Los Angeles.
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Smirnov told the Post that three strangers would appear at the headquarters in October 2024 and take over the business, and according to the entrepreneurs, they were sent to the business on Putin’s order.
The order required that other assets of Glavprodukt and Smirnov, which are under his American company, Universal Beverage, be placed under “temporary” control by Russian authorities.
Smirnov claims that his company has lost 30% of its value since Russian authorities took over the business and employed 1,000 workers between the three factories.
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In addition to the losses, top Russian prosecutors have accused Smirnov of illegally sucking up millions of dollars into the United States over the past month, working with the United States towards Russia’s “strategic defeat.”
The Russian court also ordered Smirnov to seize the cash and assets connected to Glavprodukt to force him to sell the company at a price far lower than its value.
Fox Business reached out to GlavProdukt for comment.
R-FLA Sen. Marco Rubio will stop talking to reporters when he arrives at the Capitol building from the Senate Metro on Wednesday, January 25th, 2023. ((Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was interviewed by Breitbart News’ Matthew Boyle.
Boyle pointed out that in October, Russians took GlavProdukt, the first American company owned by Universal Beverage, to ask whether it was something Rubio and his team could use to put pressure on the Russians in negotiations.
“Well, that’s going to be part of the conversation,” Rubio said. I said before noting that the embassy in Moscow must function before anything happens.
He went on to say that the embassy is functional and that the State Department will invite Russia to speak.
“There’s an opportunity to work together. Obviously, it’ll involve talking not only about Russian assets seized by Europeans and the US, but also about what you have, but also about damaged American companies,” Rubio said. “It’s going to have to be broad. It’s part of a broader conversation about how we’re going to reset our relationship.”
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Still, Smirnov fears that his company will not exist by the time the US and Russia reset their relations.
In the meantime, he told the Post he hopes Trump will step in and tell Putin’s American-owned businesses are off limits.
“I’m asking President Trump to save my company and save all other American companies,” he said.
