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Inditex announced today that it will close the 502 stores of the Zara chain in Russia. The online store is also closed. With that announcement, the already extensive list of multinationals that are ignoring Russia is getting a little longer. An overview.
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Russia is becoming increasingly isolated after the invasion of Ukraine. Both politically, but increasingly also economically: many companies are withdrawing from the country. Many Russians are now rushing to those Western stores because they fear that the ruble will collapse further and more stores will close.
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Inditex, parent company of Zara, announced on Saturday that it is already temporarily withdrawing from Russia. But earlier Apple, Asos, Boohoo, Burberry, Electronic Arts, Hermes, H&M, Ikea, JD Sports, Gucci, LVMH, Marks & Spencer, Mango, Nike, Cartier, Swatch and Under Armor had made similar decisions. Some are closing all stores, others are simply not stocking new stuff.
Companies that do remain active in Russia are meanwhile thrown all kinds of curses on social media. For example, the hashtags #BoycottMcDonalds and #BoycottCocaCola are trending on Twitter. For many companies, the decision to suspend activities in Russia is not an obvious one. For example, last year McDonalds got 9% of its income from Russia and Ukraine. Inditex also expects that it will lose a large part of its turnover as a result of the decision.
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