56% of surveyed citizens of the aggressor country, Russia, would like foreign companies to return to the Russian market. This was reported on May 10 by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of Ukraine with reference to research data from the Group 7/89 association.
As the Foreign Intelligence Service pointed out, Russia is increasingly facing the consequences of its own geopolitical isolation that came after the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine.
“What just a few years ago seemed to be a stable market with a wide selection of international brands has today turned into a space of forced substitutes, parallel imports and rising prices,” the report says.
Young people especially want this – among the people surveyed 18–29 years old, 84% of them do. The older generation has lower interest in the return of foreign companies.
At the same time, in large cities the demand for the return of global business is much higher than in small towns.
This hit the technological and industrial sectors of the Russian Federation the hardest. After the departure of such giants as Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, Autodesk and others, the Russian software market found itself in a state of artificial isolation, explains SVR. This has led to higher prices and less competition, and a situation where businesses are forced to either adapt to limited choice or find complex workarounds.
“As a result, import substitution has become a forced replacement without alternatives at the level of global products,” Ukrainian intelligence indicated.
No less indicative, as noted in the Foreign Intelligence Service, is the situation with consumer goods. Food products, cosmetics, and household appliances have risen significantly in price due to parallel imports and logistical difficulties. Some Russians directly admit that in Russia there are still “no analogues.”
