Getting out of Russia

Send us Fan MailThe Russian invasion of Ukraine has given capital markets participants in the West compelling legal, moral and financial reasons to question, and indeed halt, their involvement in financing the country and its businesses.Swathes of new sanctions have forbidden all sorts of financing activity, but critically, investors and companies like index providers — which provide a framework for so much investment in Russian assets — are now going beyond what is laid out in the proscriptions as they look to disentangle themselves from Russian capital markets.The effects will likely be catastrophic for Russia, especially its equity markets. But if westerners are forced to sell their Russian assets all at once into a market with no buyers, it won’t just be Russia that feels the financial pain.On the podcast this week, we discuss how banks, index providers and investment managers can cut their risk exposure to Russia and whether they can do it without hurting themselves in the process. We also look into whether a recent sudden interest in buying defence stocks is compatible with the sort of ESG concerns that are being given as a moral justification not to invest in Russia.