As of July 24, 2022, some 1178 companies are still operating in Russia at a full or limited scale, according to the KSE Institute. Altogether, they annually generate around $119 billion of local revenue in the aggressor country. Around a third of them are the companies that choose to stay and continue operations as usual but the rest are those simply buying time. The latter companies claim that they have reduced current operations and held off new investments but by keeping operations in Russia continue funding its war machine.
Among these companies are such well-known names as Pepsi and Coca-Cola, large European retailers Auchan and Metro, international tobacco giants — Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris, and a long list of the FMCG, pharma and healthcare companies that justify their presence in Russia by claiming that they provide Russians with so-called “essential goods” (Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson).
All the companies remaining in Russia despite the five months of war crimes and atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine are also financially supporting the Russians in the meantime. Altogether, they have over 431 thousand employees in Russia to whom they pay salaries and for whom they pay payroll taxes.
