Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is leading some of the world’s best known brands — from Apple to Disney and Ikea — to abruptly exit a country that’s become a global outcast.
Many private companies have announced they are suspending or ending operations in Russia because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.Car shipments were paused. Beer stopped flowing. Cargo ships dropped port calls, and oil companies cut their pipelines.
Along with needing to comply with western sanctions against Russia
, companies are increasingly aware of the potential reputational risk of continuing with business as usual in the country, while some have cited their own corporate responsibility standards for pulling back.
Russia’s domestic equity market, which has been closed since the start of this week, will remain closed into next week, marking by far the longest shutdown in the history of modern Russian equity markets. Meanwhile, Russian stocks trading on the London stock exchange have now been suspended.
This will also have big dent in earnings of the companies.
- Boeing suspended major operations in Moscow, as well as maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines.
- Airbus is halting supply of parts and services to Russian airlines.
- Shell will sever ties with Russian gas giant Gazprom and end its roughly $1 billion financing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
- BP is exiting its nearly 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, and faces a potential financial hit of as much as $25 billion.
- Exxon Mobil says it will exit Russia oil and gas operations valued at more than $4 billion and cease new investment.
- GM, which sells only about 3,000 cars a year in Russia, says it will suspend exporting vehicles.
- Ford suspended operations.
- BMW stopped shipments and will stop production in Russia.
- Daimler Truck Holdings said it would no longer send supply components to its Russian joint-venture partner.
- Volvo Cars, owned by Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Geely, halted sales and shipments.
- Renault ceased operations and production at two assembly plants because it can’t get parts.
- VW paused delivery of Audis already in Russia so it can adjust car prices to reflect the decline in value of the ruble.
- Harley-Davidson suspended shipments to Russia.
- Adidas suspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union.
- Nike ceased online sales because it can’t guarantee delivery.
- FedEx and UPS suspended shipments.
- Yoox Net-A-Porter Group and Farfetch, luxury e-commerce platforms, are suspending deliveries in Russia.
- Apple has paused product sales and limited services (including Apple Pay), on top of ceasing exports to Russia and restricting features in Apple Maps in Ukraine to safeguard civilian safety.
- Dell stopped selling products.
- Ericsson is suspending deliveries to Russia.
- Walt Disney is pausing film debuts in Russia. Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal say they won’t release films in the country.
- Swedish company, IKEA, will close all 17 of its Russian stores, and announced a $22 million investment to help those displaced by the invasion.
- Airbnb has also stopped operations in Russia and Belarus.
- Visa and Mastercard have both blocked financial institutions in Russia from their networks after government sanctions dropped on Russian banks following the invasion.
- Google announced it has suspended all advertising in Russia, citing “the extraordinary circumstances.”
- Apple has stopped selling iPhones and other devises inside Russia and has blocked RT News and Sputnik News downloads from its App Store outside Russia.
- Spotify has closed its office in Russia “indefinitely” and removed all RT and Sputnik content in the EU “and other markets.
- Facebook has restricted access to RT and Sputnik across the EU and are demoting content “from Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts from Russian state-controlled media outlets and making them harder to find across our platforms.
- Hollywood studios Disney, Warner Bros, and Sony Pictures Entertainment suspended new film releases in Russia.
- France’s TotalEnergies said it would no longer provide capital for new projects in Russia.
- Finnish engineering group Metso Outotec has temporarily ceased deliveries to Russia.
- Norsk Hydro will not enter into new contracts linked to Russian producers until further notice and is looking at potentially freezing existing commercial relations.
- Nokia will stop deliveries to Russia to comply with sanctions.
- Germany’s Daimler Truck has suspended deliveries of truck components to its Russian partner Kamaz.
- Harley-Davidson halted motorcycle shipments to Russia
- Czech brewer Budvar, which counts Russia as one of its five major markets, halted beer deliveries to the country
- TJX, which owns U.S. chains Marshall’s, TJ Maxx and Home Goods, plans to sell its 25% stake in Russian apparel retailer Familia.
Oil and gas revenue has been providing a hard-currency lifeline for Russia because the sale and transport of energy largely escaped direct disruptions. Russia was running a monthly current-account surplus of about $20 billion at the start of the year.