Berdnikov, who previously managed select assets of the Ukrainian Bayadera Group, has been appointed the new CEO of Auchan
Ilya Berdnikov, the new CEO of “Auchan Retail Russia,” previously served as a top executive at a company whose assets were seized by the Russian government from its former owners. In the spring of 2025, Berdnikov served as director of marketing and strategic development at National Alcoholic Traditions LLC (NAT), which was part of Ukraine’s Bayadera Group.
However, Ilya Berdnikov does not mention this episode on his LinkedIn profile.
Since December 2024, he has listed Rosmayno as his place of employment.
The appointment of Ilya Berdnikov as CEO of “Auchan Retail Russia” was announced on September 22. The company clarified that he has held the position since September 19, 2026.
Former CEO Asya Balabay has remained with the company as executive director. A Kommersant source in the retail market claims that Balabay will effectively continue to manage the business, while Berdnikov will be responsible for overseeing the company.
The appointment took place five days after the Russian “Auchan” was transferred to the temporary management of the little-known JSC “L.E.V. Management.”
On September 17, 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred the Russian assets of several major foreign companies to “L.E.V. Management” for temporary administration. In addition to “Auchan,” this includes the assets of Nestlé, FM Logistic, and “Leman PRO”—formerly Leroy Merlin.
The owners of “L.E.V. Management” have not been publicly disclosed. The company is headed by Andrei Krayushkin, who succeeded Larisa Rogachova in this position on September 10, 2026. According to Kommersant, Krayushkin previously served as first deputy head of the Main Directorate for Migration Affairs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At the same time, “Auchan Retail Russia” stated that it will continue to operate at full capacity and fulfill its obligations to customers, partners, and employees.
According to data cited by *Kommersant*, Ilya Berdnikov has been serving as executive director at Rosmain since December 2024.
Prior to that, from 2020 to 2022, he headed one of X5’s departments. He later worked at the Georgian wine company Askaneli, the Canadian construction company Bothwell Accurate, and helped develop the Canadian startup SolidRobots.
However, as the “Agency” discovered, his professional history does not end there.
Starting in April 2025, Berdnikov worked at National Alcoholic Traditions LLC as director of marketing and strategic development. According to leaked HR data, his salary in May and June was 585,000 and 805,000 rubles, respectively.
After the start of the full-scale war, Berdnikov also worked at “Yakov & Partners,” the former Russian division of McKinsey, the alcohol company “Gift,” and Yaroslavl Distillery LLC.
The company “National Alcoholic Traditions” became state-owned approximately one and a half months before Berdnikov joined it.
In January 2025, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit demanding that the Ukrainian Bayadera Group, its owners, Natalia Bondareva and Svyatoslav Nechitailo, as well as Yuriy Moklyak, the manager of its Russian assets, as extremists and to transfer the assets to the state. According to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, after the war began, part of the business’s revenue was used to support the Ukrainian military.
On February 18, 2025, the Velikoustuzhsky District Court granted the claim, and by February 27, Rosmaino had become the owner of NAT in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Other assets of the Bayadera Group were also transferred to the state, including the Velikoustuz Distillery, “Business Group,” “Southern Alcoholic Traditions,” and “Alcoholic Traditions of Crimea.”
According to the “Agency,” after the company was transferred to state ownership, its revenue fell sharply.
While NAT generated 13.4 billion rubles in revenue in 2024, this figure stood at approximately 3.9 billion rubles in 2025.
At the end of 2025, the company posted a net loss of approximately 1.5 billion rubles.
In the summer of 2025, the Russian government included NAT and other former Bayadera Group assets in its privatization plan.
In the spring of 2026, Rosimono put five companies up for auction as a single lot with a starting price of 838 million rubles. As noted by “The Agency,” this amount was approximately 11 times less than the valuation of the assets at the time they were seized by the state.
The first auction did not take place due to a lack of bids. In June, an attempt was made to resell the assets under a scheme that allowed the price to be reduced to 419 million rubles, but no bids were received this time either.
After Ilya Berdnikov was appointed, one of Russia’s largest grocery chains came under his management.
“Auchan” has about 230 stores in 100 cities across the country. According to results for the first half of 2026, the chain’s revenue totaled 127 billion rubles, which is 2.5% less than during the same period a year earlier.
As a reminder, the French hypermarket chain Auchan decided to exit the Russian market by selling its business.
