With the economic sanctions imposed on Russia, Western companies such as HSBC, BP and Shell started to terminate their activities and investments in the country.
Western economic sanctions on Moscow have increased since Russia entered Ukraine last week.
Even neutral Switzerland said it accepted the European Union sanctions and froze the assets of some Russian individuals and companies, including President Putin.
Companies leave Russia
Finally, the energy giant Shell, which left the Dutch partnership in November 2021 and became a completely British company, announced yesterday that it will end all its activities in Russia. This includes the Sakhalin 2 LNG liquefied natural gas production facility, which is 50 percent owned by Gazprom and 27.5 percent owned by Shell.
Shell’s CEO, in a statement, described Russia’s entry into Ukraine as a “meaningless military attack” and said he would not remain silent. He added that they are negotiating with governments to supply energy to Europe.
Over the weekend, Russia’s largest foreign investor, BP, announced that it is giving up its 20 percent stake in Russia’s state-controlled oil company Rosneft. According to Reuters, the British company’s oil and gas reserves are thought to be almost halved.
It was followed by another energy company, Equinor, which is mostly owned by the Norwegian state. Equinor said it will begin divesting of its joint ventures in Russia.
The Italian company Eni has announced that it wants to sell its 50 percent stake in the Blue Stream pipeline, which carries natural gas from Russia to Turkey. The other half of the line belongs to Russian Gazprom.
After this, the eyes were turned to the French energy company Total. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that the company, which announced that it would not make new investments in Russia, made evaluations about its already existing activities in the country.
Technology companies also participated in economic sanctions
British HSBC bank has announced that it has started to cut ties with a number of Russian banks, including VTB, known as the second largest.
Trading in the stocks of Russian-based companies traded on the Nasdaq and New York stock exchange has been temporarily suspended.
In addition, the US-based automaker General Motors will not deliver to Russia; German Daimler Truck Holding and Harley Davidson also announced that they will cease their operations in Russia.
Volkswagen delivers cars to dealers in Russia; Sweden-based Volvo said it would suspend exports to Russia.
Microsoft said on Monday that it will remove Russian state media outlet RT’s mobile apps from the Windows App store and block Russian state-sponsored media ads.
Google has blocked RT and other Russian channels from monetizing ads on websites, apps and Youtube videos, as well as the downloading of RT’s mobile app on Ukrainian territory. Facebook’s owner Meta had a similar ban.
Apple has ended its sales in Russia.
US-based aerospace company Boeing has announced that it has terminated all relations with Russian companies.
The company, which closed its office in Kiev on Monday and stopped its pilot training programs in Moscow, announced today that it will not provide parts, technical support and maintenance support to Russian aircraft.
New sanctions announced every day
The West announced the sanctions it will impose on Russia after it recognized the independence of the two regions in the east of Ukraine, which are under the de facto control of the separatists. With the start of the occupation, the sanctions were increased.
The EU and Canada closed their airspace to Russian planes. Russia responded by closing its airspace to these countries.
Some Russian banks were removed from the international payment system SWIFT, and Moscow was restricted from using its $630 billion foreign reserves.
Thereupon, yesterday, with the ruble depreciating by about 30 percent against the dollar, the Central Bank of Russia announced that the policy interest rate was increased from 9.5 percent to 20 percent.