Russia initiated aggression against Ukraine in 2014. On February 24, 2022, it started a full-scale military invasion to the Ukrainian territory. This brutal war and military crimes of Russian troops caused a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine with thousands civilians killed and millions becoming refuges. As a reaction to this act of aggression, many international companies decided to leave the Russian market, while some others continue doing business there as usual. We track such decisions of companies and urge them to stop funding the war.
Hold off investments: company postponing future planned investment/development/marketing while continuing substantive business
Pausing InvestmentsReducing Activities: company scaling back some business operations while continuing others
Scaling BackPause operations: company temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open
SuspensionClean Break: the company completely halting Russian engagements or exiting Russia
WithdrawalExit Completed: company sold its business/assets or its part of the business to a local partner and leaved the market
Exit CompletedAlthough many Western players have left the Russian market, AC NIELSEN LLC and NIELSEN DATA FACTORY LLC, local subsidiaries of The Nielsen Company group, continue to operate actively in Russia and are experiencing increased profits.
Still operating and actively hiring, continues to operate cloud services in Russia. Announced that completed sale of business and transitioning team but no changes in the register and the link for the news was deleted later.
Russian Forbes bought a new domain in case of license revocation. Wrote articles about successful illegal "referendums", distorting the principles of territorial integrity of independent countries. The agreement to sell Forbes to 28-year-old Luminar Technologies CEO Austin Russell has been postponed for approximately 2 weeks as the businessman was unable to raise the required amount of $800 million by November 1, 2023.
The Korean company MStoryLink plans to create a joint venture (JV) in Russia to develop the My Comic platform for Asian comics.
Scale back to just health products in Russia
Suspended all sales of products and services in Russia and Belarus since the war started, except for a few health products
Temporarily stopped work in Russia and decided to operate outside the Russian Federation but on March 8, 2022 resumed reporting from Russia. BBC halts journalists' work in Russia after Kremlin passes law threatening jail for spreading 'fake' information.
Apply extra scrutiny to any papers from Russia; opposes a academic boycott of Russian authors or Institutions
Calrec Responds to Critics Who Claim Company Supports Russian Aggression. It says it maintains stringent compliance controls and immediately took steps to cease all commercial activities in Russia and Belarus. While it is unclear as to the basis for such criticisms, the company counts Russia State TV & Radio VGTRK among its customers; the company appears to have taken down press releases regarding its business with the state broadcaster from its website.
Harry Potter e-books are withdrawn from Russian e-libraries
In process of separating from Avito and fully exit Russia. As of the end of August no action taken on separating from Avito and fully exit Russia. At the end of March 2022, Prosus shareholders announced the beginning of the separation of the company into two independent entities, with Avito continuing to operate as an independent Russian entity managed by local management. Prosus to sell Russian classifieds business Avito to Kismet for $2.4B.
Announced its withdrawal from Russia, The company will transfer four of the six printing houses to the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov. The Russian printing assets of the Norwegian holding Amedia, which left the country after the start of hostilities in Ukraine, have been transferred to the management of Rosimushchestvo.
Received income in Russia in 2021 which significantly decreased in 2022. Nielsen says it is examining its operations in Russia. 07.09.2023: The legal entity was liquidated.
Criteo completed $250M deal for ad-tech firm Iponweb. The initial agreement to buy the company was made before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022. Completion of the deal was thrown into jeopardy in early March, just a few days before it was set to close, as sanctions against Russia grew. Iponweb, while founded in the United Kingdom by Russian-born Boris Mouzykantskii, had the majority of its engineering team based in Russia.
WPP sold its business to the existing local management.