Only 8.5% of Western firms have left Russia since Ukraine war: Study

Only a small number of Western companies have deserted Russia since the war, according to a Swiss study.

Researchers at the University of St Gallen and at the IMD institute in Lausanne have studied how many companies based in the European Union and in G-7 countries have actually divested from Russia.

Their findings reveal “a very limited retreat of EU and G-7 firms from Russia, (and) challenge the narrative that there is a vast exodus of Western firms leaving the market”, St. Gallen University said in a statement on Thursday.


“In effect, many firms headquartered in these nations have resisted pressures from governments, the media, and NGOs to leave Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.”

At the beginning of the war, around 1,404 companies based in the EU and the G-7 counted a total of 2,405 subsidiaries that were active in Russia, the study showed.

By late November, only 120, or about 8.5 per cent of those companies, had divested at least one subsidiary in Russia, study authors Niccolo Pisani and Simon Evenett found.

But even with the United States, fewer than 18 per cent of US subsidiaries operating in Russia had been completely divested since the invasion began, the study showed.

By contrast, 15 percent of Japanese firms and only 8.3 per cent of EU firms had divested from Russia, it said.

Of those who have left their Russian subsidiaries in place, 19.5 per cent are German and 12.4 per cent are US-owned, according to the study.

The research also showed that the exiting Western firms only accounted for 6.5 per cent of the total profit before tax of EU and G-7 firms with active commercial operations in Russia.