Hungarian companies included on blacklists because of their presence in Russia

There are several blacklists of companies that have not left Russia after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war on 24 February 2022, and these include several Hungarian companies as well, 444.hu reports.

Leave-russia.org and Yale University's list do not necessarily list companies that violated sanctions, but rather, these companies were included in the list due to ethical and moral issues.

Some of the bigger Hungarian companies on the list are Mol, the pharmaceutical company Richter Gedeon and OTP bank.

Gábor Orbán, CEO of Richter Gedeon, earlier said that their company's activity resembles that of the Red Cross, as he believes that access to medicine and therapy is a fundamental right.

The reliability of the lists is somewhat questionable, as they include companies (Rába, Zwack) which have previously stated that they have no business relations with Russia whatsoever. Kálmán Kalotay, a former staff member of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, told 444 that these lists are probably based on press reports. Herendi Porcelain, for example, is most likely on the list because it has several specialized stores in Russia.

The Hungarian attitude towards staying in Russia is more like that of Chinese or Indian companies. Companies from most EU countries have opted to leave. The EU cannot interfere in these processes, it can only act if the company's activities are on the sanctions list.