Cisco to pull out of Russia and Belarus for good

Having stopped operations in Russia and Belarus in the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March, US networking outfit Cisco has decided to withdraw permanently.

On March 3rd Cisco announced that due to the escalation of war and in support of the Ukraine it was stopping all business operations, including sales and services, in Russia and Belarus ‘for the foreseeable future.’ It seems it has now decided that whatever happens in the future course of the war, it’s done trading in the two countries. The statement made today reads:

“Since our announcement on March 3, we have continued to closely monitor the war in Ukraine. We have now made the decision to begin an orderly wind-down of our business in Russia and Belarus. We are focused on ensuring impacted employees in Russia and Belarus are treated with respect and have our support through this transition. Cisco remains committed to using all its resources to help our employees, the institutions and people of Ukraine, and our customers and partners during this challenging time.

“We will communicate directly with customers, partners, and vendors to settle our financial matters, including refunding prepaid service and software arrangements, to the extent permissible under applicable laws and regulations.”

The announcement follows the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in late February and subsequent sanctions by numerous countries upon Russia. Cisco is certainly not the only tech firm to reduce or entirely remove its presence in Russia.

In April Ericsson suspended ‘affected business’ in Russia indefinitely, having already suspended ‘all deliveries’ to customers in Russia in late February. The next day fellow Nordic telecoms equipment giant Nokia announced that it will also be exiting the region, though added the caveat that it will aim to provide the support to maintain the networks there.

Meanwhile having previously ‘paused’ the Google Play billing system for Russian users, last month Google started blocking the download of paid apps from in Russia – going a good way to cutting the country off from much of the benefit of having an Android phone.

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