> Is that illegal? I wonder about rule of law. We talk about this as sacrosanct here in the "West".

Ignoring the geopolitical aspects and the “critical infrastructure” aspects: yes it’s illegal everywhere to unilaterally abrogate a contract or to use bankruptcy or such rules to evade contract.

Normally of course this would be handled through the courts, but the answer to your question is “yes”

We definitely need to get rid of our double standards. All complaints about this from non-western countries are mostly correct.

"The German economy ministry said Gazprom Germania violated foreign trade law."

"Germany's economy ministry justified the takeover by saying it had not granted permission for the Gazprom Germania acquisition. Permission is required, the ministry said, if the investors are not from the European Union and "critical infrastructure" is involved."

German ministers can implement some draconian decisions, but they are operating in a large system of checks and balances, including independent courts and required parliamentary support for passing legislation.

The two scenarios are therefore roughly as similar as the arbitrary power of the owner of a privately held firm and the constrained power of a CEO of a publicly traded company.

Not making any point about your example, which was indeed despicable behaviour.

Under some circumstances if your company operates essential infrastructure, yes. (And always had been, btw.)