My business was the first U.S.-owned company expropriated by Russia but not the last

OPINION:

Russian leader Vladimir Putin confiscated an American-owned food giant in October.

I have a personal stake in the matter. The expropriated company, Glavproduct, owned by Universal Beverage Co., is mine. I built it from scratch over the past 25 years. Now that President Trump is in the White House, I am genuinely hopeful that it will be returned to me in time and that no further U.S. companies will be seized.

Glavproduct is Russia’s largest canned food company, with three factories, hundreds of branded products and more than 1,000 employees. It was appraised at over $200 million not long ago, but now it’s known as the first U.S.-owned company expropriated by the Russian Federation. Every day it’s in the Russian government’s hands, the business atrophies further.

Glavproduct was not expected to be the last American company to be taken by the Russian government. However, with Mr. Trump back in office, that should change. Mr. Putin takes Mr. Trump seriously and wants to negotiate with the American president over Ukraine. Mr. Putin likely won’t want to jeopardize their relationship.

Mr. Putin declared America an “unfriendly” country shortly after the invasion. Under his decree, any foreign-owned business from an “unfriendly” nation can be subject to government control. This was no bluff: French food behemoth Danone (Dannon in the U.S.) and legendary Dutch beer producer Carlsberg were expropriated.

Targeted companies are left with no options. To exit Russia, they can either walk away (like McDonald’s did) or sell their business with a government-mandated 60% discount from appraised value with a 35% “exit tax” on top, leaving just 5% to take home. Neither option is acceptable to the rational investor.

Mr. Putin expropriated these European conglomerates to test the reaction of their governments and the European Union. When virtually no retaliatory efforts were made, Mr. Putin upped the ante by seizing my U.S. company. It was a sweet target. Glavproduct has no bank loans, plenty of cash on the balance sheet, and a reliable income stream selling millions of “people products” yearly. Pushback from the Biden administration to the expropriation was nonexistent, putting other U.S. companies operating in Russia at risk.

More than 300 U.S. businesses, including Fortune 500 companies such as Pepsi, Philip Morris and Procter & Gamble — American pension plan staples — continue to operate in Russia. Any of them could be the next target for seizure as Russia tries to ratchet up pressure, but expropriating U.S. companies the size of Pepsi with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office would be provocative in the extreme. Companies like mine are easier steppingstones.

In just a few short weeks, Mr. Trump has changed everything. World leaders know his “America First” agenda isn’t just a tagline but a muscular agenda protecting our interests at home and abroad. It’s one of the reasons I supported President Trump in the voting booth three times.

With Mr. Trump back in office, the American business community has a fierce advocate in the White House. American businesspeople will be far more secure from foreign seizure than ever.

The U.S.-Russia relationship is going through tough times. Mr. Trump wants to make a deal with the Kremlin, stopping the destruction and bloodshed in Ukraine and improving the relationship between Russia and the United States. All American investors in Russia hope that protection and the return of expropriated American business will be on the agenda during the imminent negotiations. Business and investment must again become the foundations upon which a lasting deal between nations can be forged.

The alternative stands 90 miles off our southern shores. The expropriation of U.S.-owned companies in Cuba led to 65 years of tension. We want to avoid a situation like that with Russia in the long term.

Hundreds of U.S. companies and entrepreneurs were encouraged to invest in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. We took enormous risks but gladly did our part to bring American capitalism to Russia. We now need our government to keep us in mind, and under Mr. Trump, I’m confident it will.

With Mr. Trump at the helm, hope has returned.

• Leonid Smirnov is a Los Angeles real estate developer and the founder of Glavproduct and Universal Beverage Co.