Siemens to withdraw from Russia after 170 years

German industrial giant Siemens has announced plans to pull all business from Russia after 170 years of operations.

In a statement, the company said “Siemens will exit the Russian market as a result of the Ukraine war. The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities.”

Siemens employs 3,000 people in Russia and its activities there span energy, communications, technology and travel. The company worked on high-speed trains that now serve the Moscow–St. Petersburg route.

Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG, said: “We condemn the war in Ukraine and have decided to carry out an orderly process to wind down our industrial business activities in Russia.

“This was not an easy decision, given our duty of care for our employees and long-standing customer relationships, in a market where we have been active for almost 170 years.”

As the war in Ukraine started, the company put all new business and international deliveries to Russia and Belarus on hold.

Since then international sanctions, have impacted the company’s Russian operations, particularly through rail deliveries and maintenance.

Siemens said it would manage the orderly process to wind down its activities in line with regulatory requirements and international sanctions.

Busch said: “We are evaluating the impact on our people and we will continue to support them to the best of our abilities. At the same time, we provide humanitarian assistance to our colleagues and the people of Ukraine and stand with the international community in calling for peace.”

Siemens has already started negotiating its way out of a contract with Russian energy supplier Gazprom. In April, it said it supported “the severe and broad sanctions applied by western governments” on Russia.

The company announced its decison to withdraw from Russia alongside second quarter results. Profit fell during the second quarter and sanctions in Russia cost the company €600 million.

However, revenue grew 16%  to €17 billion and orders grew 32% year-on-year, reaching €21 billion.