The German manufacturer of building materials Knauf is leaving the Russian market. Previously, the company was exposed for participating in the reconstruction of occupied Mariupol.
This was reported by the Merkur publication with reference to the Knauf press release.
The company said it had given up business in Russia against the backdrop of "current events in the world." The transfer of the company to local management will make it possible to "keep jobs for more than 4 000 employees in the future," as noted by Knauf.
The companyʼs business will be transferred to local management, but the Russian authorities have yet to agree to this. Knauf has been doing business in Russia for more than 30 years and does not name the exact reason for leaving the Russian market.
Knauf is one of the largest German companies in Russia. In 2022, its turnover will exceed €15 billion. Now Knauf owns factories in Krasnodar Krai, Astrakhan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tula, Chelyabinsk and other regions. Knauf enterprises produce gypsum and cement building mixtures, metal profiles, plasterboard sheets, mineral wool insulation, etc. The company also has mining assets.
- On April 3, the journalists of the Monitor program of the German TV channel ARD published an investigation about the fact that building materials from the German companies Knauf and WKB Systems GmbH are used in construction in Mariupol. The head of Knauf Nikolaus Knauf is believed to have good personal connections with Putin.
- After that, Germany began an investigation into whether German companies supplied materials for the "reconstruction" of Mariupol, temporarily occupied by the Russians.