Foreign IT firms lose $10Bln after leaving Russian market. Source: Maksim Blinov/ Sputnik.

Russian Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev revealed on Tuesday that losses of multinational IT companies who fled the Russian market after the initiation of the war in Ukraine totaled 650 to 700 billion rubles (about $10 billion).

"Foreign companies left on their own, losing a significant part of their revenue. According to our estimates, the losses of international IT companies that ceased their activities in the country amounted to 650-700 billion rubles in 2022 alone," the minister said.

After the western wave of sanctions hit #Russia, how are the companies that suspended their businesses in Russia doing? And did it "pay" to exit Russia?#UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/QIXUJRuew3
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) April 28, 2022

Shadayev added that they would engage in competition with nations that are willing to work with them and complete joint projects. According to him, the nations are relatively numerous, moreover, there is currently a significant demand for Russian technologies from nations in Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia for collaborative projects.

Major Western suppliers have largely abandoned the Russian market. Cisco, SAP, Oracle, IBM, Nokia, and Ericsson are among the producers of software and hardware for telecommunications that have withdrawn from the Russian market. In March, major IT companies Samsung and Apple also stopped shipping their goods to Russia.

Earlier this week, the ECB raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points as widely expected, but dashed hopes that such hikes were heading downhill, warning instead of further increases in the months ahead.

A senior member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, Guido Crosetto, told Reuters that the threat of further tightening was driving up borrowing costs and harming an already weak economy.

"We are creating a situation from an economic and social point of view that is Russia's best ally right now," he said. "That is why it is even more absurd what (ECB President Christine) Lagarde did," he added.

Crosetto believes that Russia was hoping to "take advantage" of the continent's economic crisis and put pressure on Europe to stop supporting Ukraine in an effort to end the war and ease the energy crisis triggered by the Western sanctions on Russia.