Nokia and Ericsson are the latest major tech companies to suspend their operations in Russia.

Ericsson and Nokia have joined the list of technology companies that have stopped working in Russia in protest of the invasion of Ukraine. While Ericsson announced that it will do so for an unspecified period of time, Nokia confirmed that it will permanently cease operations in the country.

The former, after six weeks of analyzing the impact of the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, decided to suspend its operations and sales to the country, but will continue to pay its employees’ salaries in Russia. The company decided to suspend sales to the country at the end of February, and will now stop dealing with its Russian customers indefinitely. As a result of its withdrawal from this market, Ericsson will suffer an impact of over $95 million, which will be reflected in the first quarter of 2022 as a “decline in assets and other exceptional costs.”

Nokia, on the other hand, confirmed that it will continue to support its customers during its exit from Russia, a period that is still undetermined. Currently, it is applying for the necessary licenses needed to support its customers according to the applicable sanctions. The company does not expect this decision to affect its expectations for 2022, but announced that it will allocate a provision for this purpose in the first quarter, of around $100 million.

This decision also means that Nokia will not implement a plan announced in November, where it declared the launch of a joint project with Russian Yadro to develop 4G and 5G base stations. As for the number of employees affected by this decision, there will be around 2000, although the company confirmed that many of them will be offered jobs in other countries.

The exit of both companies, specializing in networks, from the country is undoubtedly good news for Huawei, which has been banned in several countries and faced sanctions from the United States. The Chinese company has a strong position in Russia, and with all these companies exiting the country, it is likely to gain a good market share in Russia. Currently, between 40% and 60% of installed wireless equipment in Russia comes from Huawei.