Illustrative Image
Western companies severely affected by anti-Russian coercive measures.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
The West itself appears to be the party most harmed by the sanctions it has chosen to impose against Russia. As well known, the US, UK and EU are facing a wave of inflation with all-time highs. And in the same sense, the business world is collapsing in Western countries. The business losses with the end of participation of some Western companies in the Russian market are extremely significant and are causing serious problems for the economy of many countries, with losses accumulating exorbitant amounts.
It is estimated that American, European, British, and Japanese companies have already lost more than 70 billion dollars since February. The losses are a consequence of the packages of sanctions imposed by Western countries on Moscow in response to the start of the special military operation in Ukraine. Many corporations withdrew from Russia or had their activities frozen, losing insertion in the powerful market of consumption, work and raw materials offered by Russia.
As expected, the most affected sector is the energy one, whose losses are estimated at almost 55 billion dollars, generating a series of problems for Western societies. Relations between Russia and Western Europe in the energy sector have always been a central strategic point in the international economic balance and now seem more threatened than ever. However, other sectors are also in similar situations.
Agricultural commodity, food and tobacco markets achieve losses of almost 8 billion dollars. In the same sense, in the technology and IT sector, 5 billion dollars of losses have already been accumulated. And there is also the vital banking sector, whose side effects of anti-Russian financial coercive measures have already led to a loss of 3,7 billion dollars – most of this amount belonging to Société Générale, the only banking group to have left Russia completely so far.
With regard specifically to the energy sector, the European and British companies most affected were BP, Linde, Uniper and Total Energies, whose billions of dollars in assets were harmed as a result of the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and other Russian-European projects of cooperation. The process of disintegration of the Russian and European energy markets will not be so easily completed, as it is necessary to reverse a scenario of decades of cooperation, which will undoubtedly take time.
For example, BP, which announced its unconditional withdrawal from the Russian market in February, still remains one of Rosneft’s main partners, owning 19.75% of its shares. However, the process of disintegration has progressively advanced. BP itself revealed a loss of more than 25 billion dollars due to the freezing of its activities in Russia, pointing to a scenario that indicates a path towards the end of the cooperation in the near future.
American and Japanese energy companies are heading in the same direction. ExxonMobil, Mitsui & Co and Mitsubishi Corporation were some of the companies that had the most losses in recent months, mainly as a result of the effects that the coercive measures had on the Sakhalin-I and Sakhalin-II projects. Obviously, other energy companies were also affected by the packages of sanctions, albeit on a smaller scale, showing a scenario of generalized losses for this sector’s businesses.
For Russia, however, the deficits are much smaller and almost never imply real losses, but market restructurings. In energy, Russian oil and gas production remains strong and active, unaffected by the departure of some Western companies. The withdrawal of these companies makes room for other markets, such as the Chinese and Indian, which are the ones that have stood out in the search for Russian oil and gas in recent months. Meanwhile, Western companies lose important sources of supply that will not be easily resolved.
As for market sectors in which Russian consumption was of interest to Western companies, there are even fewer losses. The corporations that withdrew from Russia left their physical production structures there, which could be used by Moscow, generating employment for the Russian population, internal circulation of capital and economic progress.
For example, McDonald’s lost more than one billion dollars with its adherence to anti-Russian measures, but its withdrawal from the local market made room for the nationalization of the company’s production structures, and a Russian national company was created to sell fast food for Russian citizens. The same is currently happening with other Western companies that have left the Russian market. In short, the West lost a rich consumer market and handed over to Moscow all the necessary means for Russians themselves to supply their population with such goods and services.
In practice, all these facts simply mean damage to Western business. Entrepreneurs do not appear to have been consulted by heads of state on whether or not sanctions were in their best interest. The measures were simply imposed unilaterally to meet NATO’s geopolitical plans, without considering the opinion of companies that generate jobs for Western citizens. Currently, there are still plans to completely ban the entry of Russian citizens into Europe, which according to estimates will generate losses of more than 20 billion euros, harming the entire European market.
In fact, western sanctions, if not reversed, will lead the world into a global recession in which the most affected will be the western countries themselves. To avoid this, the business sector must mobilize to demand an end to sanctions.
I wonder if they assumed the sanctions would hit Russia so hard, that they would have had to open up their State controlled energy companies to foreign partners? Guess they backfired on the Corporates? That is the problem with promoting ‘low IQ, Yes Men’ as they lack the skills to look at anything apart from their own interests and beliefs.
There again, the global reset, did not count on India and China supporting Russia, along with the rest of the world. Well apart from the G7, ‘5 eye’, NATO, EU nations.
Judging by the results on the ground promoting ‘yes men’ is in fashion everywhere.
No Maps today? No military updates? Which stage are we now? Stage 2 3 4 also failed? Was it a feint also? 🤣😂
Where are the reports on bases hit by UA? And military columns in bridges? Rússia Lost ONLY Southfront morons are in denial 🤣
Hope those tears never Stop coming 🥰
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1563183744584130561?s=20&t=3ml551a_Tw_yhfE6W8TDgQ
Ukraine trains conscripts then puts them on a train to Donbass. Russia then “detrains” them on route!
Station announcement: This train terminates at Chaplino, when departing the train please mind the shrapnel gaps in your body.
No news are good news. Be careful with your conclusion. If Russia does not tell something this doesn’t mean that they are doing nothing. Maybe they are preparing something big in silence? A silent time was always a dangerous time because they provide no information in order not to risk tellling the opponent their military plan. Keeping the opposite in the dark is a strategy of war.
miss Sawyer—end of month discount on eskimo sperm in my kansas lgbt brothel—2 eskimos sodomize you–must pay in rubles
Brainwashed idiot. Ukraine has been pushing their soldiers into the meat grinder in a shocking rate. The few counter attacks are insignificant. Uncle Sam’s plan works out great. Fighting to the last Ukrainian guarantees that western Ukraine will never be in the Russian sphere of influence again, but the price for Ukraine is extremely high. The US does not care about that price. Their interest is maintaining the global hegemony and sacrificing Ukraine is just a small price to pay for that.
I’d rather you visualize me sucking two dicks at the same time.
Lucas você por acaso chama trabalhador de colaborador? Para bom entendedor você vai entender.
Many factual errors. McDonalds’ business in Russia wasn’t nationalized, just bought by a Russian businessman. Other foreign businesses were bought by foreigners. And not a word about the thousands of registered RUSSIAN businesses that left and went to Kazakhstan, Turkey, etc, especially the IT ones. The oil companies (like ExxonMobil’s) shares are up, because the oil prices are up, so they haven’t lost anything.
Money is a meaningless concept to the Western ruling caste. They are the ones who “create” and distribute the USD. Starving them of real resources can cause real economic damage regardless of their ability to create money out of thin air, but for that to work Russia has to stop obsessively exporting resources. When you are at war you do not sell your enemy raw materials, to do so is insane and self destructive.
First intellectual comment on the topic yet.
That was an intelligent comment? Uh boy …
The stupidest comment I’ve read this week . Congratulations.
China and India are Russia’s enemies? LOL The amount the US and it’s vassals are still getting is miniscule, Putin’s playing games with the fools .
Are you a coke buddy of Zelensky?
US is the #1 producer of oil and gas in the World by a huge margin. Almost #2 and #3 largest producers combined. They are making a killing with this whole fake war thing. They will sell shit to you, not the other way around.
don’t care about the moron’s money–Russia has won war in ukieland
A lot of Europeans are prolly debating a fast tracked citizenship in Russia by joining the Russian armed forces and serving a few years hunting NAZIs in Ukraine to get a free pass into a stable economy, one not afflicted by the parasite of Rothschild banksters. Learning Russian is prolly a lot easier than most would expect, and you know you can trust their nonGMO foods, alcohol and tobacco more than the poisoned crap in the West. Might as well sell all our property to the banks in Europe at mark ups now, and leave the shit hole they are creating sooner than later…
A contract was always a this for that. So it is clear if you brake a contract because of sanctions both sides will lose something. Is this really surprising?
western countries dont care about,they want the great reset and that’s all, may god give us victory against pedo satanist
I’m loving it, do do doo do do
The presumption that the Supranational elite in the US, the EU and NATO were telling the truth when they said that the sanctions were designed to cripple the Russian economy, may be misplaced. The speed with which they were imposed following the start of the conflict on 24 Feb, is a good indication that they had been designed long before that and were ready to roll. The idea that those who thought up the plan wouldn’t have been aware of the alternative markets available to Russia is nonsensical, and the idea also that they wouldn’t have been aware of the knock on effects on the economies of the countries in Western Europe is equally as absurd. The main purpose of the Ukraine conflict is not to cripple Russia, it is to devastate and destroy Germany, France and Britain in particular, and the rest of Western Europe in general.
A LITTLE HONESTY
The first mistake the West made was spewing propaganda about a war in Ukraine. Bad idea, because then they started to believe their own propaganda and it turned into wishful thinking (bullshit).
Namely stating publicly that sanctions and freezing Russian assets would destroy Russia and trigger a coup. People obviously didn’t think 🙄 that through.