The Russian government plans to sell Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport, just months after nationalizing it over claims that it had fallen under foreign control, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said late last month.
Siluanov did not explain why the decision was made to sell the asset, the country’s fourth-largest airport, but said the government had carried out extensive preparatory work and was aware of potential buyers. He said the sale would take place as early as the beginning of the year. The holding will be sold through a tender, an open tender,” he said in an interview with Russia’s state broadcaster.
The government, led by President Vladimir Putin, nationalized the airport in June, arguing that its owners, Valery Kogan and Dmitry Kamenshchik, are foreign residents with no legal right to manage the asset. Kogan, who holds Israeli citizenship, became well known in Israel in 2009 when he purchased a penthouse apartment in the Sea One tower on Tel Aviv’s Herbert Samuel promenade for 110 million shekels, at the time the most expensive residential deal in the country. In 2024, he sold the property for 120 million shekels.
Kogan also owns a vast estate in Caesarea, which he put up for sale in 2020 for $845 million. He lowered the asking price last year after failing to find a buyer. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in 2022, Kogan has sold assets in several other countries as well. Last year, he sold a penthouse in Manhattan near Central Park for $33.9 million, nearly half the original asking price, according to a report in the New York Post. Earlier, he sold a property in Greenwich, Connecticut, for $10.4 million.
As of March last year, however, his stake in New York’s Plaza Hotel had not been sold. He initially sought $50 million for it and later cut the price to $23 million. According to Forbes magazine, Kogan’s personal fortune is estimated at $2.5 billion. Andrei Ivanov, a former government minister who took over management of the airport following the nationalization, told Russian network RBK News in July that the airport was heavily indebted and in need of new owners.
Russia has nationalized assets worth billions of dollars since the war began, including property belonging to Western companies such as France’s Danone and Germany’s Uniper. Appeals have been filed against the nationalization of Domodedovo Airport, including one that is still pending. The Russian government argues that the takeovers are fair and are meant to correct flawed privatizations carried out in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.