US companies want to return to Russia
American businesses welcome the Trump administration's efforts to renew dialogue with Moscow, in hopes that they can return to the Russian market, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham), Robert Agee, has told RT.
The AmCham has supported President Donald Trump's efforts to restore relations with Russia since he assumed office in January, and has called on Washington to ease the sanctions on Russia for months.
'It's better to have good business relations between Russia and the United States,' Agee told RT on Wednesday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2025), adding that '70% of our businesses four years ago looked upon Russia as a strategic market.'
The companies that remained in Russia after 2022, despite the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies over Russia's military operation in Ukraine and pressure from Washington, ended up benefiting in the long run, according to the AmCham chief.
'Consumer good companies, confectionary producers, pharmaceutical and medical equipment suppliers… all those companies have stayed, and they're very active and they're very successful,' he said.
Those who left are 'watching and waiting,' hoping for a thaw in US-Russia relations, according to Agee. He added that 'a number of companies' could start returning to Russia following a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin said on the sidelines of the SPIEF that US businesses have shown interest in returning to the Russian market. Contacts between Russian and American companies are being renewed, giving cause for 'cautious optimism,' he told journalists late Wednesday.
Putin added that he hopes Trump will assess US policies towards Russia not just as a politician, but as a businessman, and will take into account the costs and benefits of various approaches.
Izvestia reported last month that the Russian parliament was set to pass legislation that would regulate the right of foreign companies to reclaim assets sold during their exit from the country. The bill would allow the authorities or current owners of the assets to reject buybacks under certain conditions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Russia Today
an hour ago
- Russia Today
BRICS launches ambitious development drive
BRICS countries have launched large‑scale joint projects in nuclear power, aviation, AI and other sectors, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. The economic group is 'setting the bar in the development of so-called human-centric industries,' Putin noted, speaking on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The group is mobilizing 'major projects to improve the living environment' and 'implementing large-scale initiatives in nuclear energy and aviation, in the field of new materials and the IT industry, in robotics and artificial intelligence,' the Russian president said. BRICS was initially established in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. In 2024, the bloc extended full membership to Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and, later, Indonesia. Over 30 more nations have applied to join the group. The collective trade turnover of BRICS nations has 'already exceeded a trillion dollars and continues to grow,' Putin told a SPIEF plenary session. The Russian leader underlined the platform's core principles – consensus, parity, mutual interest, and openness – saying it will strengthen as more countries join. 'Russia invites partners to contribute to shaping a new global growth model, to jointly ensure the prosperity of our countries and the stable development of the entire world for many, many years to come,' he said. Today's global challenges require a global response, Putin stressed. 'Solving problems alone, especially at someone else's expense, is simply impossible – it is an illusion. Only joint actions within an organization such as BRICS and some other formats can ensure the movement of the entire civilization forward,' the president told the gathering. This year, SPIEF has drawn participants from 137 countries and territories, including global leaders, major corporations, international organizations, and policy experts.
Russia Today
3 hours ago
- Russia Today
Kiev's sovereignty, worsening positions & ‘final mistake': Key takeaways from Putin's Q&A
Moscow is not seeking the 'unconditional surrender' of Ukraine but wants it to acknowledge the realities on the ground, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the audience at SPIEF 2025, commenting on various aspects of the Ukraine conflict, Russia's goals and potential directions for resolving the crisis. President Putin took part in the plenary session of the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2025) on Friday, delivering a major speech and participating in a Q&A session. Here are the key takeaways concerning the conflict in Ukraine:Kiev's surrender Asked whether Moscow expects an 'unconditional surrender' from Kiev – similar to the demand his US counterpart Donald Trump is making of Iran – the Russian president said that was not the case, reiterating Russia's readiness to resolve the conflict through diplomacy.'We are not seeking the surrender of Ukraine. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground,' he said. Worsening negotiation positions Russia has consistently attempted to settle the conflict in the then-Ukrainian Donbass, which erupted after the Western-backed 2014 Maidan coup, through diplomatic means, the president said. However, those efforts were repeatedly undermined by Kiev and its backers.'At each stage, we suggested to those with whom we were in contact in Ukraine to stop and said, 'Let's negotiate now. Because this logic of purely military actions can result in your situation getting worse, and then we will have to conduct our negotiations from other positions, from positions that are worse for you.' This happened several times,' Putin said. Foreign-fueled conflict Negotiations held in Istanbul in early 2022, shortly after the conflict escalated, fell apart under pressure from the same 'neocolonial forces,' Putin added.'Those who are guided by old, neocolonial principles, including and above all in Europe, thought that now they would easily profit at the expense of Russia: crush it, destroy it, annihilate it, and receive some dividends from this,' he said. Ukraine's sovereignty Russia has never denied Ukraine's right to exist as an independent nation, Putin said. However, in the years since the Soviet Union's collapse, the country has drifted from the principles on which it originally gained its independence. 'The grounds on which Ukraine became independent and sovereign were set out in the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine of 1991, where it is clearly written in black and white that Ukraine is a non-aligned, non-nuclear, neutral state. It would be a good idea to return to these fundamental values on which Ukraine gained its independence and sovereignty,' he the same time, Putin reiterated his belief that, in a certain sense, all of Ukraine is Russian. 'I have said many times that I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people, in fact. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,' he said. Obtaining and using a nuclear device of any sort, including a crude 'dirty bomb,' would be a 'final mistake' for Kiev, the Russian president warned. Such an action would trigger a 'mirror response' from Moscow with 'catastrophic' consequences for Ukraine.'Our response will be very harsh and, most likely, catastrophic for both the neo-Nazi regime and, unfortunately, for Ukraine itself. I hope that they will never come to that,' Putin said, adding that Moscow currently has no intelligence suggesting Kiev is pursuing such a military thinned out Kiev's forces are suffering from severe manpower shortages, with units at only 47% of full strength on average, Putin stated. He said Ukraine's attack on Russia's Kursk Region last August – driven by political rather than military reasoning – worsened the situation and further stretched its forces along an expanded frontline. 'They got into Kursk Region. First of all, they lost 76,000 people there. It was a disaster for them,' Putin said. 'In the end, as we said, we drove them out of there, but they created a threat to us... along the entire line of the state border with Ukraine, in two other neighboring regions,' he actions created an additional 1,600 km-long line of contact, he noted. 'They pulled apart all their armed forces. It is hard to imagine bigger stupidity from a military point of view,' he said. Russian troops could go deeper into Ukraine Putin did not rule out the possibility of advancing further into Ukrainian territory to establish a 'buffer zone' protecting Russian border areas from ongoing attacks by Kiev's the defeat of Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Russian troops moved into Ukraine's Sumy Region. According to Putin, the buffer zone there is already up to 12 km deep.'We don't have the goal of taking Sumy, but in principle, I don't rule it out,' he said.
Russia Today
5 hours ago
- Russia Today
Russia ready to hand over 3,000 more bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers
Russia is ready to transfer the remains of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers if Kiev agrees to accept them, Moscow's chief negotiator for the Ukraine conflict, Vladimir Medinsky, has said. He also rejected Kiev's claim that the body of a Russian soldier was among the remains handed over to Ukraine during a previous exchange. Moscow has repatriated a total of 6,060 sets of remains, while Kiev returned the bodies of 79 slain Russian soldiers. The exchange was agreed upon during the latest round of direct talks, hosted by Türkiye earlier this month. Medinsky's Ukrainian counterpart, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, suggested at the time that Kiev would hand over an equal number of fallen Russian troops. The handover was jeopardized after Kiev reportedly refused to accept the first transfer, on June 7. Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for being too hasty, though the exchange proceeded the following day and more were carried over the past week. 'About 3,000 [bodies] are ready for transfer, if the [Ukrainian authorities] are willing to accept them,' Medinsky stated on Friday. 'Our military is ready to hand them over so that their families can finally identify and give them a Christian burial,' he added. He also responded to Kiev's claims that Moscow had included a Russian soldier's body among the Ukrainian remains. Medinsky pointed out that that transfer occurred during a February exchange – something that Kiev had already confirmed – and noted that Moscow is aware of the situation and 'is looking into it.' Earlier this week, Ukraine's Interior Minister Igor Klimenko accused Russia of 'deliberately complicating' the identification process, claiming that some of the remains handed over in a recent exchange had been labeled as Russian. Medinsky dismissed the allegations – amplified by Western media – as propaganda, and likened the move to Nazi Germany's misinformation tactics. 'I would ask our Ukrainian negotiating partners to restrain their Western propagandists, so they don't make fools of themselves,' he said. In April, Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky stated in an interview that Ukraine had lost up to 100,000 troops since the conflict escalated in 2022. Russian Defense Ministry estimates suggest that Kiev's losses are much higher. On Friday, President Vladimir Putin described the Ukrainian army's losses as 'catastrophic' and that it suffered more than 76,000 casualties in Russia's Kursk Region alone.
