Media Wire

Western companies lost $103 billion from Russia exits: Report

Efforts by Ukraine and its Western backers to convince, shame and sanction firms into leaving the Russian market have backfired, placing lucrative enterprises in Russian hands at discount prices and pumping more than a billion dollars’ worth of exit taxes into Moscow’s coffers, according to a report.

Within days of Russian troops entering Ukraine last February, a host of Western corporations began pulling out of the Russian market. Ukrainian activists and officials hounded those who refused to leave, and US and EU sanctions prohibited the export of goods from, and import of raw materials to, Russia.

Companies that sold up their Russian operations lost a combined $103 billion, the New York Times daily reported on Sunday, citing financial reports. These firms have also handed over at least $1.25 billion in exit taxes to the Russian state, the newspaper added.

As of last March, Western companies looking to sell their assets in Russia such sales must have the sales approved by a Russian government commission, which often works to ensure that local buyers snap up these assets at bargain basement prices.

Citing the minutes from a commission meeting, the Times claimed that the commission rejected the sale of factories owned by Honeywell, an American electronics firm, until the company agreed to sell at a 50% discount. As of earlier this year, companies are legally bound to sell their assets at this 50% markdown.

“In all, [Russian President Vladimr] Putin has overseen one of the biggest transfers of wealth within Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. Huge swaths of industries – elevators, tires, industrial coatings and more – are now in the hands of increasingly dominant Russian players,” the Times wrote.

“Those who are leaving are losing their position,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told the NYT.

“And of course, their property is being bought at a serious discount and taken over by our companies, which are doing it with pleasure.”

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

Recent Posts

Historic all-Women flight lands in Mashhad

For the first time in Iran's aviation history, a flight carrying an all-female crew and…

6 hours ago

Tehran Cyber Police shut down 40 Instagram accounts of harassers

Tehran’s Cyber Police Chief, Brigadier General Davood Moazzami Goudarzi, announced a crackdown on individuals causing…

7 hours ago

Qatar warns may stop gas shipments to EU amid Russia-Ukraine war

Doha will stop gas shipments to the EU if member states enforce new legislation on…

8 hours ago

UK armed forces struggling for recruits: Telegraph

At least 15,000 British soldiers left the country's Armed Forces between November 2023 and October…

8 hours ago

Nearly 85k Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine: Report

Journalists have identified the names of 84,761 Russian soldiers who died during the war in…

11 hours ago

US downs own warplane while bombing Yemen: Pentagon

The United States Navy has inadvertently shot down its own F/A-18 fighter jet in a…

12 hours ago