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Infosys is shutting down its Russia office: report


Bengaluru: Infosys, India’s second largest IT service provider by revenue, is shutting down its Russia office, the public service broadcaster BBC reported on Friday. The development follows criticism directed at UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak over his wife Akshata Murty’s shareholding in the Bengaluru-based firm cofounded by her father NR Narayana Murthy.


“Sources told the BBC that the company was trying to find replacement roles abroad for staff employed in Moscow,” the BBC said.

With this Infosys will become the first Indian IT company to exit Russia. A spokesperson for Infosys did not comment on the issue.

Sunak was first challenged in a media interview about his family’s ties with Infosys, in which Murty holds a 0.91% stake.

Earlier this week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News that it was important for the Chancellor (or finance minister) to reveal whether his family had been “benefiting from money made in Russia when the [UK] government has put in place sanctions” on firms and individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the BBC said.

Starmer had said that it was “in the public interest” to do so.

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“I’m not attacking their family, but I do want to know if the Chancellor’s household is benefiting from money from a company that’s investing in Russia when the government is saying quite rightly that nobody should be doing that,” he had said.

Sunak told BBC’s podcast – Newscast – that being in public life, he was “fair game” for criticism, but it was “very upsetting and, I think, wrong for people to try and come at my wife”.

Infosys had said last week that it does not have any “active business relationships with local Russian enterprises.” This was to clarify on its operations in Moscow as the invasion of Ukraine had led to widespread economic sanctions against Russia.

Infosys had said that it had less than 100 employees in Russia who service some global clients based there.

“A key priority for Infosys in times of adversity is to continue extending support to the community. The company has committed $1 million towards relief efforts for the victims of war in Ukraine,” the company had said.

In 2016, Infosys launched engineering service delivery centres in Moscow and Karlovac in Croatia as part of a multi-million dollar and a multi-year engineering services outsourcing deal with Italian engineering company Ansaldo Energia.

This was done to facilitate its engineering support for US conglomerate General Electric and French major Alstom Energy’s business that was acquired by Ansaldo Energia.

Infosys bagged the deal as a long-term partner of both GE-Alstom and Ansaldo Energia. It had no presence in the region prior to the deal, according to data from HfS Research.

Earlier this month, Sunak had urged British firms to “think very carefully about their investments in Russia and how they may aid the Putin regime”.

Asked by a Sky News reporter about his wife’s shares in Infosys and whether this flew in the face of his own advice to businesses, the Chancellor said: “I’m an elected politician and I’m here to talk to you about what I’m responsible for. My wife is not.”

“We’ve put in place significant sanctions and all the companies we are responsible for are following those as they rightly should, sending a very strong message to Putin’s aggression,” he had responded.

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