Like much of the world, we have been sickened, appalled and frankly terrified by the images coming out of Ukraine since the invasion by Russia, and we stand behind the people of Ukraine and hope for a rapid end to hostilities.
The vital use of sanctions against Russia is part of the pressure that the world can put on Putin to end the war and as such we urge all of our customers to stand in solidarity, even though this is adversely effecting our business like anyone else who does business with Russia as either a buyer or seller of goods and services.
Banking restrictions mean an effective end to business with Russia – Many Russian and Belarussian banks have been excluded from the international payment system SWIFT, which has severely disrupted payments to and from Russia and Belarus. We cannot be paid by clients in Russia, and nor can we pay our Russian language linguists based in Russia, effectively cutting the supply chain off. While this hurts us, it hurts Russia more, and if it helps bring the war to swifter end we have no complaints.
Thankfully we are still able to work with our Ukrainian clients and pay all of our Ukrainian linguists for translations to and from Ukrainian, and we are here to help.
Of course we have business relationships and friends in Russia ,and we should recognise that many in the country are against Putin’s war, some are even brave enough to pout their lives and livelihoods at risk to protest – we should give thanks for these brave individuals like Marina Ovsyannikova who stood up during Russia’s state news broadcast to protest.
More information on the UK’s and the EU’s sanctions against Russia and Belarus can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/russia-sanctions-guidance/russia-sanctions-guidance
https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/stronger-europe-world/eu-solidarity-ukraine_en
