LONDON — Car factories idled, beer stopped flowing, furniture and fashion orders ceased, and energy companies fled oil and gas projects.
“You basically have Russia becoming a commercial pariah,” said economist Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “Pretty much no company, no multinational, wants to be caught on the wrong side of U.S. and Western sanctions.” Oil and gas companies, already feeling the heat from climate activists to invest in renewable energy, were among the companies that announced the most rapid and dramatic exits.Energy firm BP said Sunday that it would abandon its $14 billion stake in Russian state-owned oil and gas company Rosneft. The next day, Shell said it was leaving its joint venture with state-owned Gazprom and its involvement in the now-suspended Nord Stream 2 pipeline built to carry natural gas to Western Europe.
Mercedes-Benz suspended vehicle exports to Russia and manufacturing there. Volkswagen Group, which also owns Porsche and Audi, did the same, saying it believes a “sustainable solution to the conflict can only be found on the basis of international law." Google and TikTok blocked Russian state media channels from their platforms after a plea from the European Union. Apple blocked RT News and Sputnik News downloads from its App Store outside Russia.