MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on retaliatory measures to the seizure of Russian assets abroad.

Under the decree published on the government portal on Tuesday, the assets of two foreign companies -- German Uniper and Finnish Fortum -- are temporarily placed under external management of the Federal Agency for State Property Management.

The explanatory note to the decree said the step is taken "in connection with the necessity to take urgent measures in response to unfriendly and contradicting international law actions by the US and foreign states and international organizations that joined it (US), aimed at illegally depriving the Russian Federation, Russian individuals and legal entities of their property rights and (or) restricting their property rights."

According to the document, in case of deprivation or restriction of rights to Russian property abroad, external management is introduced for assets associated with "unfriendly" countries and located on the territory of Russia.

Movable and immovable property, securities, and shares in the capital, as well as property rights, may fall under the temporary management of the property management agency in case of analogous actions in relation to Russian property abroad.

Last year, the German government took local companies -- branches of the Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft -- under external control.

Poland followed suit, introducing external management for Gazprom and Novatek companies.

Also, over $300 billion of Russian financial assets were frozen in the US and EU banks, with the authorities threatening Moscow to transfer them to Ukraine.