Foreign businesses unable to face the harsh Russian realities continue to leave Russia rapidly. Enterprises are being closed down, capital is being moved out. The general situation is very frustrating. A large number of German companies notably stands out against this background. Statistically, 1.3 thousand German companies left the country for the entire period from the introduction of Western sanctions against Russia. This figure was announced by Wolfgang Buchele, Chairman of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations.

Sanctions turned out to be useless for business and economy. Just five years ago, there were about six thousand companies with German capital in Russia. At present, their number is about 4,5 thousand. According to Buchele, the “key players” still remain and they are trying to conduct business under the current conditions, but the constant threat of new sanctions affects the overall business environment and investments in particular. Withdrawal of foreign business results in job cuts. It is particularly unfortunate when a foreign company is the main employer in the region. And apparently, the figure of 1.3 thousand German companies is far from the limit.

The Chairman of the Committee noted that “no one is interested in leaving Russia”, but the situation with further introduction of Washington's new sanctions is unpredictable. “The crisis in Ukraine is still not solved, unfortunately, and the relations between Russia and the EU get worse for a number of reasons,” he added.