In defiance of popular pressure to leave the country after the invasion of Ukraine, more than 550 foreign businesses, many of them from Europe, are still operating in Russia, Most of European companies are doing business in Russia, according to a new Yale University analysis.
223 of these are thought to be conducting business as usual, including well-known companies from Germany (Siemens Healthineers, B. Braun), France (Clarins, Etam, Lacoste), Italy (Boggi, Benetton, Calzedonia), and the Netherlands (B. Braun) (Philips).
Along with numerous Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and ZTE, the “business as usual” list also includes some well-known American companies including Tom Ford, Tupperware, and TGI Friday’s as well as air passenger carriers like Emirates Airlines, Egyptair, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.
An expert team from Yale University has been monitoring company statements since the conflict started in February 2022, and they have been compiling and updating the data ever since.
The Yale database includes a total of 1,389 businesses from around the globe, divided into five categories:
223 businesses, including the aforementioned enterprises, are continuing doing their operations “as normal.”
162 businesses are buying time by delaying operations while still conducting “substantive business” in Russia.
170 businesses have scaled up some “major” operations while maintaining others.
493 businesses who temporarily stopped “most or practically all” of their operations in Russia but still have the ability to get residual financial returns had their operations suspended.
Clean break: 341 companies that have “totally” halted engagements in Russia.
Put together, the three worst-performing categories – digging in, buying time and scaling back – add up to 555 companies, making up almost 40% of the database.
