FT: Western companies that want to leave Russia are forced to pay contributions to the Russian budget

Western companies trying to exit the Russian market will be obliged to pay contributions to the budget of the Russian Federation. In addition, the approval process itself takes a long time.

The Financial Times writes about it.

In particular, the Norwegian company Wenaas has already concluded the first agreement on a "voluntary donation" to the budget of the Russian Federation for the right to leave the Russian market. This happened after the company entered into an agreement to sell its hotel chain. The sale price itself was €203 million, but 10% of it will go to the budget of the Russian Federation.

Companies that previously left the Russian Federation had to choose between the so-called voluntary contribution to the Russian budget or the postponement of receipt of income from sales for several years. But now every transaction that will be connected with the exit from the Russian market must be approved by a special government commission.

This commission meets three times a month and considers no more than seven applications during a meeting. At the same time, there are about two thousand companies in the queue that want to leave the Russian market.

• More than 40 Western banks cannot leave the Russian market on acceptable terms due to the decree of Russian President Putin. It stipulates that any agreements on the sale or purchase of banks require the approval of the authorities. Those banks that are still trying to negotiate an exit from the Russian Federation are afraid that their Russian assets will be bought too cheaply by Kremlin-controlled oligarchs.