The lawyer named the first applicants from foreign companies to return to Russia

Karen Shakhnazarov, a partner at O2 Consulting law firm, doubted on Monday, March 24, that with the lifting of sanctions, all foreign companies that had left Russia would return to the country. He named the first applicants for the resumption of work.

He noted that among the first foreign companies to consider returning to Russia as soon as the lifting of sanctions begins, there will be companies whose activities were in no way related to sectoral restrictions.

"This includes, for example, the entire retail and retail services sector, food production, chain cafes and restaurants," the specialist said in a conversation with Lenta.Ru .

He added that they would also be among the first companies selling luxury brands of clothing and accessories that could not continue their work due to restrictions imposed by the European Union (EU) on the cost of goods supplied to Russia in the amount of no more than €300.

Shakhnazarov said that Christian Dior has recently applied for registration of its new brands in Russia. According to the expert, this may indirectly indicate the company's plans to return to Russia as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

The lawyer noted that many foreign companies sold their assets to Russian top management and included in the deal not only the possibility of repurchase in case of return, but also certain restrictions on the right to dispose of acquired assets.

"In particular, in such transactions, the new owner was often limited in the ability to sell part of the assets to a third party, dismiss employees of the enterprises he bought, and so on. Thus, these companies not only attempted to preserve their Russian business as a single property complex by selling it into one hand, but also included in the deal a mechanism for its preservation and return," he explained.

The expert believes that Japanese and South Korean companies will be among the first to return to the Russian market.

According to Shakhnazarov, European companies are generally determined to return to the Russian market. But the specific statistics for each country will depend on the degree of its public and political sentiments.

"Nevertheless, it would be naive to claim that with the lifting of sanctions, all companies will begin to return to Russia en masse. It all depends on the specific circumstances and, in particular, on how the companies left the market, what assets they had to part with, and how laborious the process of recreating these assets would be to effectively return to the previous format," he concluded.

Earlier in the day, Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), said that the condition for Western companies to return to Russia was that they did not finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine, RT reports.

According to him, each investor should have an individual approach with an appropriate level.

Shokhin argues that in order to allow companies to return to the Russian market, it is necessary to look at how they left Russia, how they behaved later, and whether they participated in financing the Armed Forces or in the production of ammunition directly.

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First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said on March 21 that the lifting of sanctions was a condition for discussing the return of Western companies to Russia. According to him, each case will be considered separately in the country.

On the same day, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said that when deciding on the key rate, the regulator did not take into account the possible return of Western companies to Russia. And a hypothetical return is certainly a disinflationary factor, reports NSN.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on March 18 that some foreign companies that had left Russia were going to return, and the government should closely monitor this.

He recalled that the Russian Federation "did not expel anyone," and those Western companies that want to return should offer competitive conditions. In addition, the interests of domestic companies will always be a priority for Russia.

The Head of State added that Russian business had wisely taken advantage of the withdrawal of foreign firms from the Russian market.