More and more Western tech companies are announcing plans to exit Russia completely such as Swedish company Ericsson and Finland-based Nokia, according to a report from Reuters. Their departure comes on the heels of American computer systems company Dell departure last week.
Ericsson told Reuters that it would be leaving Russia in the next few months while Nokia has planned its exit by the end of the year.
Even Switzerland-based Logitech has announced its departure, after halting operations in March. Tech companies large and small have been slowly pulling out of Russia. Some have pulled out because operating in the country makes them liable to oversight and often arbitrary fines from Russian regulators.
Ericsson and Nokia specifically are likely to have pulled out of the country following their nations expressing an interest in joining the NATO alliance, a move that has invited disapproval from Russia.
Prior to Monday’s announcement as reported by Reuters, Ericsson suspended their operations back in April. Nokia on the other hand announced their complete withdrawal. Back in April, the company’s CEO Pekka Lundmark told Reuters, “We just simply do not see any possibilities to continue in the country under the current circumstances.”
Ericsson, which has about 400 employees in the country has said that it will be providing them with financial support. Nokia has about 2,000 employees in Russia and has told Reuters that despite pulling out, it will continue to provide limited maintenance of critical networks it had established both due to contractual and humanitarian obligations.
With Ericsson and Nokia’s exit, other tech companies are also seeing the signs. Earlier this year, one of Google’s subsidiaries in the country had to file for bankruptcy as the company’s assets had been seized by Russian authorities, without which they were unable to pay workers in the region.
With the exit of these two telecom providers, Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE are likely to take over the two Scandinavian companies’ market share. Russian mobile operators MTS and Tele2 are likely to become more dependent on the Chinese companies as well.