Ever since Donald Trump’s now-infamous phone conversation with Vladimir Putin last month, Russia has been buzzing with speculation that Western companies which left the country after the 2022 invasion, especially US ones, will be returning. For some, this is a dream, for others a nightmare. Either way, it seems to be an overblown prospect fuelled by a refusal to accept just how toxic the Russian market will be for the foreseeable future.
Under the headline ‘Now Hello Again? How American Companies Will Return to Russia,’ the popular tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets yesterday confidently asserted that ‘American business wants to return to Russia, but now the game will be played by Russian rules’. For different reasons, hawks, doves, protectionists and liberals have all been singing the same tune.
What the Kremlin giveth (back), it can just as easily take away again
For the foreign policy doves, it is an attempt to encourage Putin to take the present opportunity to find some way of ending the war in Ukraine and thus sanctions.
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