Domestic companies submitted over 90,000 applications to register trademarks in 2022, the president said at SPIEF
Foreign companies that left Russia due to Western sanctions are swiftly being replaced by local ones, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday while addressing the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
He noted that while Russia never asked anyone to leave, the exit of multinationals turned out to be a benefit, as it encouraged domestic businesses to grow and expand.
“A notable event and a powerful impetus for our business was the replacement of transnational corporations that left the Russian market,” Putin stated.
“Unfortunately, [Western firms] buckled under the powerful pressure from foreign political elites. We have never kicked anyone out of our market and economy. On the contrary, we even offered to weigh the pros and cons, to think carefully about their Russian partners and the possible consequences of such a…