Zara, Paypal and Samsung are the latest international firms to suspend trading in Russia after it invaded Ukraine. The clothes retailer’s owner, Inditex, will shut all 502 stores of its eight brands, including Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho, from Sunday.
Payment giant Paypal cited “violent military aggression in Ukraine” as the reason to shut down its services. Samsung – Russia’s top supplier of smartphones – is suspending shipments over “geopolitical developments”.
Other global brands, including Apple, H&M and Ikea, have already stopped selling in Russia. The clothes store closures are expected to hit more than 9,000 of Inditex’s employees who work in Russia, reports BBC.
The Spanish-owned business told the BBC it was drawing up a plan to support them.
“In the current circumstances Inditex cannot guarantee the continuity of the operations and commercial conditions in the Russian Federation and temporarily suspends its activity,” the Zara owner company said.
Adam Cochrane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, told Reuters that logistical difficulties and the weakness in the rouble – resulting in large price increases for the Russian consumer – would make “operations difficult for all retailers importing into Russia”.
