Samsung stops selling phones and chips in Russia

Samsung no longer sells phones and chips in Russia. The Korean supplier is following in the footsteps of Apple, which previously stopped supplying Russia. It is also a bigger task for Samsung: it has more market share in the smartphone market in Russia than Apple.

War in Ukraine

The Korean supplier, like many other companies, has stopped supplying Russia, partly after an emotional appeal from Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, in which he wrote: “I urge you to take a step towards world peace! As long as Russian tanks and missiles are bombing kindergartens and hospitals in Ukraine, surely your cool gadgets shouldn’t be used by Russians?”

Samsung says it is actively monitoring the situation and that all consumer electronics from Samsung are no longer supplied to Russia. In a statement, it said: “Our thoughts are with everyone affected and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families. In addition, it will donate some €5 million to charities that are helping the Ukrainian people to support.

Sanctions against Russia

This is only becoming more necessary now that Russia and its army have taken over a nuclear power plant. That, in combination with a Russian president who threatens with nuclear weapons, instills fear in many Ukrainians (but also many world citizens). No wonder, then, that the EU and the United States have created sanctions to at least slow down the Russians.

This concerns financial, economic and technological measures. For example, American companies are no longer allowed to do business with Russia’s central bank and many companies are complying with the sanctions by stopping sales in Putin’s country.

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Samsung is shutting down

Now also Samsung, which, together with the Ukrainian Prime Minister, hopes to motivate the youth and the active community within Russia to proactively stop Russia’s aggression. A necessary yet annoying decision for Samsung, which has a market share of more than 30 percent in Russia’s smartphone business. In fact, smartphone sales in Russia account for 4 percent of Samsung’s global smartphone sales.

Image: Unsplash, Jeff Kingma