Study: Under 9% of Western companies withdrew operations from Russia after invasion of Ukraine

The vast majority of firms headquartered in the European Union and G7 continue to operate and invest in Russia, new research by Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen found.

The researchers calculated that at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a total of 2,405 subsidiaries owned by 1,404 EU and G7 companies were active in Russia. Less than 9% of them withdrew at least one daughter company from Russia’s market, according to the study.

The research found that American companies were more willing to leave Russia than Western firms. Under 18% of U.S. subsidiaries operating in Russia have been wholly divested since the all-out war broke out, compared to the 15% of Japanese and only 8.3% of EU firms.

Of those EU and G7 companies remaining in Russia, 19.5% are German, 12.4% are American-owned, and 7% are Japanese multinational firms.

These findings call into question the willingness of Western firms to decouple from economies their governments now deem to be geopolitical rivals, the University of St.Gallen said in a statement.