How German hypermarket chain Globus avoids Putin’s nationalizations and keeps expanding in wartime Russia

Many Western companies remain in Russia. More than 2,000 are German, according to estimates by the Kyiv School of Economics’ Leave Russia project. But almost all try to keep a low profile, attracting little attention either in Russia or at home. When asked directly, they condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The Globus hypermarket chain and its main owner, German billionaire Thomas Bruch, take a somewhat different approach. Even during the full-scale war, the company has continued to open new stores in Russia, while Bruch has continued to call on Berlin to engage in dialogue with Moscow and to attend Kremlin-organized forums. Meduza tells the story of Globus and its Russian business.Russian authorities continue to seize the assets of foreign companies that were unwilling or unable to leave the country in time. On November 5, Vladimir Putin placed the Russian business of JTI, the country’s largest tobacco producer, under temporary management. According to Kommersant, the next target could be Russia’s largest producer of nonalcoholic beverages, the Russian subsidiary of Coca-Cola’s Swiss entity.Temporary management does not formally change a company’s ownership, but in practice that is what happens. Owners usually soon agree to part with their assets on terms they would otherwise reject. Of the roughly 20 companies placed under temporary management, only Ariston has managed to regain operational control.The authorities’ reasoning is not entirely clear, but a broad pattern has emerged. Putin and his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, have said Russia is responding to the actions of countries it considers “unfriendly.” European companies have borne the brunt, which is unsurprising: Russia tries to avoid conflict with the United States. The authorities do not place just any company under temporary management. Their targets are either market leaders or prominent players. When Auchan and Leroy Merlin’s turn came in September, others seemed likely to follow. German retailers Metro and Globus also continue to operate in Russia, and Germany has been about as “unfriendly” as it gets. It is Ukraine’s largest donor and has placed German subsidiaries of Russian companies under temporary management.Sure enough, a few weeks later, Putin placed Metro under temporary management. A month after that, the German chain donated 1 billion rubles to buy “equipment needed by [Russian] soldiers on the front line.” Globus, however, escaped that fate. And it seems unlikely to face it at all.Understanding PutinIn 2026, the organizers of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum emphasized that delegations from the United States and the European Union would attend for the first time since 2022, including a group of businesspeople from Germany. Russian media covered this extensively, and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, expressed hope that “German business leaders will show German politicians and officials the right path.” On closer inspection, however, there were no “business leaders” among the guests, with one exception: Globus’ main shareholder, Thomas Bruch.Calling Globus a leader in German retail would be an exaggeration, but it is a fairly prominent player. The same is true in Russia. Among German companies still operating in Russia, Globus ranks second in revenue, behind only Metro, according to the Leave Russia project’s calculations. Forbes estimates the 76-year-old businessman’s net worth at $1.6 billion.Bruch’s visit to the forum made headlines in many German media outlets but did not cause a major stir. His special affinity for Russia has long been known. In a 2017 profile of Bruch, Handelsblatt used the word “Putinversteher.” The term entered widespread use in 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea. It describes people who seek to understand (verstehen) and justify Vladimir Putin’s aggressive foreign policy. Bruch has echoed the views associated with “Putinversteher” in numerous interviews.“In my view, the West should have offered constructive support for the sweeping changes [in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union], with an understanding of the effort they demanded of ordinary people and political decision-makers,” Bruch said in a 2017 interview with Die Welt. “Instead, NATO began expanding — contrary to the promises made by [Chancellor Helmut] Kohl and [Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich] Genscher. In my opinion, the West bears a considerable share of the blame for the conflict over Crimea and eastern Ukraine. I believe it is time for us to free our policy toward Russia from the influence of the United States, which pursues its own interests, and find our own approach — one that brings us together rather than drives us apart.”Even later, when discussing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bruch made a point of saying Russia had reasons for launching it. In a 2022 interview with Manager Magazin, he pointed to factors beyond NATO’s expansion. In his view, the roots of the “Russian drama” went deeper. Citing veteran German politician and Social Democrat Klaus von Dohnanyi, Bruch also linked Russia’s security concerns to World Wars I and II. He stressed that he wanted peace more than anything in the world but did not say what that peace might look like.In the same interview, Bruch discussed the possibility of Globus leaving Russia. The company was not considering it, because “it would probably lead to forced nationalization, and no one would benefit.” Only Bruch knows how closely his statements reflect his convictions. Whatever the case, they serve his business interests.Going globalGlobus is an unusual company. It is a family business dating back nearly 200 years, to 1828, when Thomas Bruch’s great-great-grandfather opened a small shop in Sankt Wendel, a town in Saarland that was then part of Prussia. The company is still headquartered in Sankt Wendel, which has just 25,000 residents. One of them is Thomas Bruch. It might seem difficult to go unnoticed in a place like that, yet little is known about his private life. Aside from his sympathy for Russia and appreciation of Leo Tolstoy’s work, he is known to have once enjoyed show jumping. He now breeds Trakehner horses with his wife, Graciela, also in Sankt Wendel.The Bruch family business began expanding rapidly in the 20th century, after the founder’s grandson moved into wholesale trading. Other milestones listed on the company’s website include the launch of private-label products in 1928 — a hallmark of German retail, where these products account for a substantial share of the selection — the opening of its first self-service store in 1949, and its first supermarket resembling today’s Globus stores in 1966.Thomas Bruch took over the company in 1980 and led its international expansion. Stores opened in the former East German states and the Czech Republic in 1990, in Luxembourg in 1999, and in Russia in 2006. In 2020, he handed day-to-day management over to his son Matthias, who was 37 at the time.Globus currently ranks eighth among Germany’s largest retail chains by revenue, well behind the leaders. Comparing it with market leaders Edeka and Rewe is not entirely fair, however, since those companies operate conventional supermarkets. Globus’ direct competitor is the hypermarket chain Kaufland, part of Schwarz Gruppe, which also owns the Lidl supermarket chain. Kaufland’s revenue in Germany is roughly four times that of Globus. In its home market, Globus has 60 hypermarkets and 88 home improvement stores; Kaufland has 790 hypermarkets. Kaufland also has a much larger presence abroad, with around 1,600 stores in eight countries, compared with just a couple of dozen Globus stores. Finally, Kaufland is developing an online marketplace alongside its hypermarkets, while Globus wound down its e-commerce operations several years ago.On November 4, Globus released its financial results for the 2025–2026 fiscal year. Like-for-like revenue grew a modest 1.4%, with total revenue reaching 8 billion euros, while earnings before interest and taxes rose 1.9% to 195 million euros. With German inflation at 2.2% in 2025 and projected to reach 2.8% for 2026, those figures amount to a decline in real terms.The overall picture would look different if the financial statements included the Russian business. But since January 1, 2025, it has operated independently, though it has the same shareholders. Globus’ German press office invariably points this out when media outlets ask it to comment on events in Russia. For example, it stressed that Bruch had represented only the Russian business at the St. Petersburg forum.Staying loyalFrom 2021 to 2025, revenue at the Russian company Hyperglobus, which operates 21 hypermarkets — five more than in the Czech Republic — rose from 119.6 billion to 165.6 billion rubles, according to its financial statements. Net profit rose from 4.2 billion to 7.4 billion rubles. At an exchange rate of 94 rubles to the euro, the 2025 average, the Russian business generated more than 1.7 billion euros in revenue in 2025 and 79 million euros in net profit. Those are substantial figures compared with its European results.Figures from Russian and international financial statements cannot be compared directly. Russian authorities also do not allow investors from “unfriendly” countries to take their profits out of Russia. Still, the Russian business is clearly large enough to fight for. And the company’s efforts to protect it go beyond Bruch’s pro-Russian statements.The formal separation of the Russian and European businesses may itself have been intended, at least in part, to reduce the risk of “nationalization.” Unlike Metro, which operates in Russia through a subsidiary of a German company, Hyperglobus is an entirely Russian company. Its shareholders are, admittedly, citizens of an “unfriendly” country. But at least its main shareholder disapproves of that country’s “unfriendly” policies and goes out of his way to appear as friendly as possible.Several years ago, Russian authorities made clear that foreign companies risked being placed under temporary management if they invested too little, let alone scaled back their operations. “Our economy and our citizens must not suffer because of unscrupulous owners, so in such cases we will make active use of external management,” Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said. Coca-Cola subsidiary Multon could be placed under temporary management for precisely that reason. According to Kommersant’s sources, the proposal came from Bochkari, a producer of beer, kvass, and other beverages that wants to take over as the managing company. The idea reportedly received government support.Hyperglobus cannot be accused of being unwilling to expand its Russian business. In late September, shortly after Putin placed Auchan’s Russian subsidiary under temporary management, Hyperglobus announced plans to build a 24,000-square-meter hypermarket in Zelenograd. The planned investment totals 4 billion rubles, a substantial sum for Hyperglobus. Sources later told Izvestia that the company was looking for other sites to build on. Hyperglobus’ press office confirmed this. It also said the company was considering expanding its experimental Globus Lavka format, a hybrid of a prepared-food store and a cafe.The company does business with the Russian government and indirectly supports people fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Over the past several years, according to the SPARK business information system, the company has participated in tenders issued by the Kremlyovsky catering company, which is part of the presidential administration. German broadcaster ARD recently found that the Globus hypermarket in Balashikha funds a local organization called Volunteers of Balashikha, which collects “humanitarian aid for fighters in the special military operation.” In a comment to ARD, Hyperglobus’ press office did not deny working with the organization. This is not the only such instance. The Insider found that Hyperglobus had taken part in “supporting participants in the special military operation” back in 2022.All of this would seem sufficient to keep the business safe, but in early October Bruch apparently took another precaution: He appointed Putin’s friend, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, to Hyperglobus’ supervisory board. Bruch said he had appointed the 82-year-old Schröder because of “the need for additional expert advice.” Schröder has already visited Russia. He toured a Globus hypermarket in Moscow and visited Putin on the Russian president’s birthday. The president reportedly learned from news reports that Schröder was in Russia and promptly invited him to meet. For Schröder’s new employer, the visit probably confirmed that hiring him had been the right decision.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.Meduza