24 February 2024

Three years into Russia’s full-scale war, Western businesses and policymakers still face a choice: cut off the economic lifelines sustaining the Kremlin’s war machine - or continue enabling it. Profits must not come before the lives of Ukrainians and their pursuit of freedom and liberty. It’s time to examine the persistent issues sustaining the Kremlin’s war as well as the available policy solutions needed to defund and disarm Russia’s war machine. Removing resources behind Russia’s aggression is the cheapest and most sustainable way to achieve “just and lasting peace” for Ukraine, a declared policy goal of the Trump administration...

...Contrary to public perception, there was no mass corporate exodus from Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As of November 2024, 1,599 multinational corporations still operated in Russia through local subsidiaries. Only 28% of firms exited through sale of liquidation of assets. These businesses provide a vital economic lifeline to the Russian economy, contributing corporate taxes and supplying goods, services, and technology that sustain the Kremlin’s war effort. Moreover, companies operating in Russia are required by law to assist in military conscription, further entangling them in the war machine. Foreign multinationals paid at least $41.6 billion in taxes to Russia in 2022–2023, with an estimated additional $20 billion expected in 2024...