Vladimir Potanin, one of Russia's richest oligarchs and a Kremlin confidant, has criticized plans to confiscate assets of foreign enterprises leaving the country, likening them to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

Potanin, who heads the Nornickel mining company, drew the parallel as President Vladimir Putin's government scrambles to respond to massive Western sanctions on Moscow for its military campaign in Ukraine.

The confiscations have not been announced, but have been floated as an idea to hit back at the West.

"I would call for a very cautious approach to the issue of confiscations from the enterprises that have announced they are leaving Russia," Potanin said in a statement published by his Nornickel mining company on Telegram.  

"This would take us a hundred years back, to the year 1917, and the consequences of such a step would be the global distrust of Russia from investors, it would be felt for many decades."