The aggression against Ukraine and the brutal actions of the Russian army, including crimes against civilians, urged many international companies and global brands decided to stop their activities in Russia. Economic sanctions imposed on Russia by governments of many countries as well as the withdrawal of private companies from the Russian market are setting the Russian economy under pressure and may help stop the unleashed war against Ukraine.
Destroyed town of Borodyanka, spring 2022
This website is a joint project of KSE Institute and a team of Ukrainian IT volunteers. It features a list of major companies and world-famous brands that have closed their business in Russia due to the current political situation or are planning to do so in the near future. The website also contains a list of companies that have decided to continue operations on the Russian market despite the military invasion of the Russian army onto the territory of a neighboring state. The goods and services provided by these companies as well as the taxes they pay in Russia support the Russian economy and allow the Russian government to continue its war of conquest in Ukraine.
The project goals
After the start of the military invasion of Ukraine, international companies have been publishing statements about their stance regarding their operations on the Russian market. We, a team of researchers, analysts of KSE Institute and volunteers, set our hands on creating this website to provide complete and objective information on the decisions of companies to leave the Russian market or continue operations on it. This website allows you to get up-to-date info and express your opinion via social media to urge companies to leave the Russian market and stop financing the war in Ukraine.
About the information provided on this website
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine KSE Institute launched an analytical project, which was named “SelfSanctions”, aimed to collect data on foreign companies operating in the Russian market and limiting or terminating their activities.
Examination of data was conducted jointly with specialists from the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
We are grateful to Yale’s School of Management which database is used to fulfill the KSE database. Please see the database of Yale’s School of Management HERE.
The database contains a lot of information:
- We collect daily statistics on changes in the status of foreign companies operating/operated in the Russian market and limiting or terminating their activities.
- We created the Telegram bot https://t.me/exit_ru_bot for tracking/monitoring of news on priority foreign companies (coverage 1, 2, 3 or 7 days of monitoring).
- We do regular analysis of changes in share prices and capitalization of parent groups of companies that have or have had business in Russia.
KSE Institute also used epravda.com.ua and squeezingputin.com websites and other open sources. Data is verified and KSE status is assigned. Data on stocks is taken from Google and Yahoo Finance. KSE database is more complete and comprehensive and contains much more information than most other similar databases, as it also includes data on number of staff, revenue, capital and other financial indicators, the latest updates and changes in statuses, links to used sources, and daily updates from the telegram-bot etc.
We keep with the following principles to provide the website visitors with the most complete and objective information:
- We use official company statements
To collect data, we use press releases published on the official corporate websites or official statements published on the websites of reputable news agencies (such as Reuters and Bloomberg) or international media publishers, such as FT, NYT, WP, etc. We also use publications in company blogs or company statements in their official social media channels. If there are no official statements, we use data from reputable media that interviewed company representatives. - We Provide Links to Information Sources
Information published on this website can be easily verified using links to official company statemwents. This eliminates ambiguity in the interpretation of data. - We update information regularly
We take every effort to track changes and promptly update information on the website. If for any reason the presented information is outdated or incorrect, you can report it and we will make the appropriate changes.
All company names used on this web site are for identification purposes only. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Project history
The LeaveRussia project and this website were conceived and initiated in March 2022 by a team of Ukrainian IT volunteers. In June 2022, the LeaveRussia team joined efforts with the team of KSE Institute working on the SelfSanctions project, which analyzes the activities of international companies relating to the Russian market. As a result, the most complete company database has been created, which is represented on this website.
To streamline joined efforts and develop the project further, the team of volunteers has transferred all rights for the project and the LeaveRussia website to KSE Institute. Now KSE researchers and analysts, and the volunteers work on this project together.
The team of volunteers who started the LeaveRussia project:
Igor Vinnykov - the project idea, texts, data research
Serhii Lohvin - administration, data research
Olexander Hurov - programming, data research
Viacheslav Dorofieiev - design, data research
Tetyana Pushkash - text editing and translation
Brights Company - logo and webdesign
The team of KSE Institute:
Nataliia Shapoval - Chairman of KSE Institute, Vice President for Policy Research, Project manager
Andrii Onopriienko - Senior Project Expert
Oleksii Gribanovskiy - Senior data analyst and IT Developer, creator of the Telegram bot https://t.me/exit_ru_bot
Oleksii Gerashchenko - Data Analyst
Nataliia Rybalko - Data Monitoring Specialist
Examination of data was conducted jointly with specialists from the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
KSE Institute and Leave Russia project are the part of B4Ukraine Coalition since mid-2022.
Why companies should stop doing business in Russia
For many years, Russia has been pursuing a militaristic and annexionist policy towards neighboring states. The war against Moldova in 1990-1992, Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine in 2014 were only intermediate stages of the expansion that led to a full-scale war against Ukraine started by Russia on February 24, 2022. These events endanger the future of democracy in Europe and the very existence of the mankind as Russian leaders threaten openly not only Ukraine, but also other countries with the use of nuclear weapons.
A Ukrainian soldier is helping civilians to cross the Irpin river over a destroyed bridge, March 2022. Source: www.bostonglobe.com; Heidi Levine/FTWP
International companies may exercise their influence by putting economic pressure and refusing to cooperate with the aggressor. The Russian economy is highly dependent on foreign technologies, goods and capital, which, among other things, are used by the Russian government to wage wars of conquest. By cutting off funding for the Russia's war machine, international companies may stop the war that could easily go beyond Ukraine and become global.
Leaving the Russian market will certainly entail some financial losses for many companies. However, the scale of those losses is incomparable with the imminent losses due to a possible global war or a change in the world order, which the Russian government pursues. The people of Ukraine are calling on companies to stop all business with Russia to avert a future global catastrophe.
What can you do to stop the war?
On this website, you can find a list of international companies that continue doing business in Russia. The taxes of those companies paid to the budget of the aggressor country allow the Russian government to finance the war in Ukraine. You can influence such companies in many ways to urge them to leave the Russian market:
- Write a post on your social networks;
- Contact the companies via social media, contact forms on company websites or by making phone calls and tell them how you feel about what is happening. You may find the contact details of the companies on this website;
- Boycott the goods and services of the companies and tell your friends about it;
- Write an electronic petition calling on the company to leave Russia;
- Hold a street action near the company's headquarters.
These simple actions have influenced the decisions of many global brands that had to leave Russia under the pressure of public outcry. Make your contribution right now to restore peace in Europe.