Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, on Wednesday called for sweeping curbs on state corporations that control swathes of the economy, declaring that many should be closed.

Without naming specific companies, he told a meeting of Russian business leaders at the Kremlin that the corporations should “simply disappear” or become joint stock companies, with many of their state privileges removed. “I think that at some moment the creation of state corporations got out of control,” Mr Medvedev said.