BERLIN (Reuters) – German business software maker SAP is looking into closing its business in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the company’s chairman told the Handelsblatt newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.
“The attack by Russia on the Western world is absolutely terrifying. By the way, it’s not Putin alone. Quite a large part of the Russian people seems to support him,” SAP chairman and founder Hasso Plattner told Handelsblatt.
“We are examining how we can make a structured withdrawal from Russia. At the same time, we have a duty to provide for our 1,300 employees in Russia,” Plattner added.
SAP has already stopped sales in Russia but it still offers updates and technical support to existing customers who are not affected by sanctions, Handelsblatt reported.
It also plans to shut down its cloud services in Russia, though it would give customers the opportunity to back up their data first, the newspaper reported.
(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska, editing by Thomas Escritt)
