NEW YORK, November 27. /TASS/. Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher stated that the company left Russia because it was losing control over its Russian business.

"I made the decision [to leave Russia] <...> because I felt that control over our business was coming down," he said in a conversation with Bloomberg, adding that the conflict in Ukraine was not the reason for this decision.

Schumacher clarified that he did not see an opportunity to regain control in the near future, which led to the decision to leave Russia.

The entrepreneur added that the decision to leave the Russian market was the most difficult of his year and a half as the head of Unilever.

On October 10, the Russian company Arnest announced the completion of a deal to acquire Unilever's business in Russia and Belarus. It was noted that the subject of the deal was the company's assets, including four production sites in Yekaterinburg, Omsk, St. Petersburg, and Tula. The company specified that Arnest had been producing cosmetics and household chemicals for Unilever for more than 17 years, both for the domestic market and for export.