Foreign companies lost billions of dollars after leaving Russia |

A number of foreign companies left Russia after the West decided to impose sanctions on Moscow. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in repeated statements that the restrictions imposed shortly after the start of the Russian military operation backfired on those who introduced them.

Foreign retailers that have pulled out of Russia or stopped operations have already lost about $2 billion in profits, according to data from Russian business daily Kommersant.

Among the biggest losers were furniture giant IKEA and Swedish clothing brand H&M, which lost about $400 million and $363 million, respectively, according to anonymous sources in the paper. Likewise, the Spanish clothing consortium Inditex, owner of brands such as Zara, Bershka and Massimo Dutti, among others, suffered losses of about $300 million.

The sources said that French sporting goods retailer Decathlon incurred losses of at least $140 million, while Italian luxury retailer Moncler and French luxury design house Hermes lost about $200 million. They added that among the companies that remain closed in Russia, but have not yet made their intentions to leave the country concrete, net losses are estimated at between $500 million and $700 million.

Insiders suggested that Japanese apparel maker Uniqlo would bear the brunt in terms of profits, as the company’s revenue from sales in Russia between 2019 and 2021 continued to grow.

The news comes after Putin said that companies leaving Russia leave behind a “good legacy”, while vowing not to let their assets and various infrastructure go to waste. Our companies and businessmen choose these companies and companies and continue this work. And with great success.

In early January, a survey revealed that more than 50% of Russians are not worried about the country’s exit from global fashion brands in 2022.

Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, which Moscow previously recognized as sovereign states, for help in confronting the genocide in Kiev. Many countries condemned the operation, and imposed a series of sanctions on the Eurasian country.

However, according to the Russian president, the Western plan to crush the Russian economy in the short term did not work. It shrank just 2.5% last year, a much smaller decline than during the 1998 financial crisis (5.3%) and the Great Recession of 2008 (7.9%). The International Monetary Fund also predicted that Russia’s economic growth would exceed that of Germany and the United Kingdom in 2023 and 2024.

and / sputnik