About 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to Western sanctions, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of the Russian capital, said on Monday.
“Our estimates put some 200,000 people at risk of losing their jobs,” he said in a blog post.
According to Sobyanin, the authorities last week approved a € 38 million program to boost employment in the Russian capital.
He pointed out that the main goal of the program is to help those Muscovites who work for foreign companies that have temporarily stopped operating in Russia or have decided to leave the country’s market altogether.
After Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, hundreds of Western companies have announced the suspension or termination of their operations in Russia.
Sobyanin said the new program aims to help more than 58,000 people who have lost their jobs. 12,500 people will take courses in a new profession.
Jobseekers will also have the opportunity to perform public works in institutions, parks and elsewhere in Moscow, which is home to 12 million people.
Economists believe that the impact of Western sanctions on Russia is not yet fully felt and the country is in deep recession.
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