Nokia announced Tuesday that it will exit the Russian market, which will result in layoffs for the company’s 2,000 employees in the nation.
The announcement comes just one day after rival Ericsson announced an indefinite suspension of its operations in the country.
Since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and the heavy sanctions placed on Moscow, hundreds of mostly Western corporations have declared the suspension or exit from Russia.
Nokia, which ceased delivering to Russia in early March, said in a statement that it “can now announce that we will depart the Russian market.”
In a tweet, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said, “It has been evident for Nokia since the early days of the invasion that sustaining our presence in Russia would not be possible.”
According to a Nokia spokeswoman, the company employs 2,000 people in Russia, with roughly 200 of them engaged in research and development.
“Unfortunately, redundancies are unavoidable in these circumstances. We will, however, offer relocation for some tasks that can be performed outside of Russia “Nokia’s Head of Public Relations, Maria Vaismaa, wrote in an email.
“Our employees’ safety and well-being are our first priority, and we intend to manage this transition smoothly,” she added.
Nokia said the action will result in a provision of 100 million euros ($108.6 million) in its first-quarter accounts, which will be released on April 28.
Nokia stated it was keeping its financial estimates for 2022 “given the robust demand we expect in other regions,” despite Russia accounting for less than 2% of the company’s net sales in 2021.
Ericsson, a Swedish rival, stated on Monday that its activities in Russia would be suspended indefinitely and that its 600 employees would be placed on paid leave.
The exit of the two Western heavyweights from the global 4G and 5G industry makes way for Huawei of China in Russia.
Huawei has been barred from building new networks in the United States and many European countries, citing concerns that its technology may be used as a Trojan horse for Chinese spying, which the company denies.
