War in Ukraine: French companies face the dilemma of leaving Russia


The pressure has gone up a notch on these companies present in Russia when the Ukrainian president himself pointed the finger at them on Wednesday.

While Volodymyr Zelensky urged, this Wednesday, before the French Parliament, French companies established in Russia to stop supporting “the war machine» Russian and to leave this country, they find themselves faced with this political and economic dilemma. Le Figaro draws up an assessment of the choice of the main French companies present in Russia.

Companies that have decided to suspend their activities

French carmaker Renault, which has been publicly targeted by the Ukrainian president for its activities in Russia, announced on Wednesday evening that it would immediately suspend operations at its Moscow plant and assess “possible options regarding participationin its big Russian subsidiary, AvtoVAZ.

With regard to French banks, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole have chosen to suspend their activities in Russia almost a month after the invasion of Ukraine. However, these decisions should not weigh too heavily on the results of the two banks. From the start of the conflict, BNP and Crédit Agricole indicated that they had little presence and exposure on the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

Many French groups have also already decided to suspend their operations in this country. This is the case for luxury giants like LVMH, Kering and Hermès, but also for Airbus, Safran and Alstom.

SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: Renault suspends its activity in Moscow

Companies that remain in Russia

Adeo, the holding company of Leroy Merlin which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked on Wednesday, among other companies, to leave Russia, replied that a closure would be considered a “premeditated bankruptcy», «paving the way for an expropriation which would strengthen the financial means of Russia“. Adeo, on the other hand, assured that he “decided at the beginning of the conflict to suspend new investmentsin Russia, where the group claims to have 45,000 employees for around a hundred stores.

Another sign of the Association Familiale Mulliez with a strong presence in Russia, Auchan, which has 231 Russian stores for a turnover of 3.2 billion euros, or more than 10% of its global business. Auchan did not wish to comment after Volodymyr Zelensky’s intervention before the French Parliament.

Société Générale has not blocked its services in Russia where it is very present. Its subsidiary Rosbank is indeed a heavyweight in the Russian banking market, with 12,000 employees and 2 million customers.

Finally, the carpooling platform BlaBlaCar, very present in Russia where it also operates buses, remains in the country but will stop investing there. “BlaBlaCar maintains on-site service, but isolates its Russian business from the rest of the company and cancels all development projects related to this market“, clarified the French company in a press release, saying”(assume) its responsibility as an employer to protect the 100 employees of its subsidiary and its community.»

Stop buying Russian gas?

For its part, the French giant TotalEnergies has decided to no longer conclude or renew contracts for the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products by the end of 2022. But the group refuses to give up gas. The CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, said on Wednesday that his group could not give up Russian gas, explaining that it had subscribed “25 year contracts“.

On this point, for Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, president of the French energy group Engie, the possible decision to stop buying Russian gas belongs to European governments. “If we decide to stop buying Russian gas, that immediately implies decisions by the public authorities to deal with a form of shortage”, he estimated Wednesday on France Info. “And suddenly we are really convinced that this is a decision that must be taken by public authorities and probably by Europe, because it is Europe that has the capacity to take such decisions and to support it with necessary measures”he added.


SEE ALSO – War in Ukraine: “The first emergency is to become independent of Russian gas”, says Bruno Le Maire



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