In January 2024, eight international companies successfully concluded the process of withdrawing from the Russian market by selling or liquidating operations in the aggressor state. This brings the number of businesses that fully left Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to only 356, according to the KSE Institute.
The list of the recent Russia leavers includes a Swedish network cameras manufacturer Axis Communications (liquidation), the largest banking and financial Group in Cyprus — Bank of Cyprus (liquidation), a Swiss provider of institutional brokerage services Banque Cramer & Cie SA (liquidation), a U.S. oil and giant ExxonMobil (liquidation), a Polish mining machinery producer Famur, a French global automotive supplier Faurecia, a German automotive logistics provider GEFCO Group, and Greenland’s fishing company Royal Greenland.
As of February 6th, 2024, 356 global firms have completely pulled out of Russia, while 1,210 are in the process of leaving.
“It looks like after 2 years of the war foreign owners stopped unsuccessful attempts of finding new buyers for their businesses in Russia and started to leave radically by pursuing full liquidations,” said Andrii Onopriienko, Kyiv School of Economics Researcher and Project Lead of LeaveRussia.org.
The majority (2,138 or 58%) of international companies with ties to Russia at the start of 2022 continue to do business within the aggressor state.
“Unbelievable that so many companies are still able to find excuses to stay in a terrorist state Russia two years after the start of the bloodiest war European soil has witnessed since WWII. The glossy ESG reports do not interfere with paying millions into Putin’s war coffers!” said Nataliia Popovych, B4Ukraine’s Steering Committee Member.
A global Coalition of civil society organizations, B4Ukraine, calls on G7, EU, and Swiss governments to urge their businesses to cut ties with Russia and issue business advisories to warn of the heightened risks of continuing business operations in the aggressor state.