2023-09-19 04:35:31
Russian President Vladimir Putin. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
Western companies have $18 billion (regarding 16.88 billion euros) in profits in Russia that they cannot access due to Kremlin hurdles, the Financial Times (FT) reports.
BP, Citigroup and PepsiCo are among the companies affected because they continued to operate in Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Tens of billions of dollars are stuck in Russia,” one CEO told the FT, “and there is no way to get them out.”
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor. We welcome feedback at the end of the article.
Western companies made $18 billion (regarding 16.88 billion euros) in profits in Russia last year, but the Kremlin has made it impossible for them to access those funds in retaliation for sanctions, reports the Financial Times (FT).
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Since Moscow ordered its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, many international companies have withdrawn from Russia, but some have chosen to continue operating there – and these are now excluded from their own revenues. Companies in this predicament include BP and Citigroup, the FT reports.
“Dozens of billions of dollars are stuck in Russia”
These companies generated $199 billion (regarding €186.61 billion) in gross revenue in Russia last year, the publication said, citing data from the Kyiv School of Economics. As part of counter-sanctions once morest the West, Russia has imposed a ban on dividend payouts for companies from “unfriendly” countries, which include the US, UK and EU countries.
“Tens of billions of dollars are stuck in Russia,” one CEO told the FT, “and there is no way to get them out,” he added. Other foreign companies with funds in Russia that they cannot access include PepsiCo and Philip Morris, which have $775 million and $718 million respectively stuck in Russia, according to the publication.
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Moscow is freezing the funds of Western companies as the country grapples with a host of economic problems brought on by the geopolitical fallout from the Ukraine war, from declining exports to a plummeting ruble to a brain drain. Just last week, the Russian central bank raised interest rates once more to curb inflation and support the slumping national currency.
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