WASHINGTON, March 19. /TASS/. The return of Western companies to Russia is currently complicated by the presence of many uncertainty factors, foreign businesses need to understand what will happen next to anti-Russian sanctions and export control measures, Randi Levinas, Founder & CEO of Levinas Advisory, said in conversation with TASS.
"The landscape is still filled with many uncertainties, and right now it seems too early to be discussing a return of Western businesses to Russia," she said.
"Western businesses face numerous impediments regarding doing business in Russia: Importantly, companies in the West will need to understand the path forward on sanctions (many in the U.S. require Congressional action to remove) and export controls," she said.
According to Levinas, for Western companies "Russia is not a simple commercial decision."
"Reputational risk will be front of mind for many," she added.
Earlier this week, speaking at the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs President Vladimir Putin said Western companies will not be given any special treatment as they clamor to return to Russia, and if their niche has already been filled, then that "train has left the station." He stressed that Russian businesses have learned to work under sanctions from the collective West and have managed to launch alternative cooperation mechanisms with those foreign partners who want to work with Russia.
In late February, US President Donald Trump extended for a year a number of sanctions previously imposed on Russia in connection with the situation in Ukraine. It concerns the restrictions imposed by the administration of 46th President Joe Biden on February 21, 2022, by the Trump administration during his first presidential term on September 20, 2018, and the administration of 44th President Barack Obama on March 6, March 16, March 20, and December 19, 2014 on Crimea. As Trump noted, he concluded that all these restrictive measures should remain in force after March 6, 2025.
The American leader said on February 25 that the possibility of lifting anti-Russian sanctions would be considered in the future, but there are no such agreements yet. On February 26, he clarified that Washington is ready to lift the restrictions, but only after the conflict in Ukraine is resolved.