According to a BBC report, Infosys, India’s second-largest IT service provider, is shutting its office in Russia. The development follows criticism directed at UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak over his wife Akshata Murty’s shareholding in the Bengaluru-based firm cofounded by her father NR Narayana Murthy.
Sources told the BBC that the company was trying to find replacement roles abroad for staff employed in Moscow. Infosys has been under pressure to cease its Russian operations following the invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News that it was important for the Chancellor (or finance minister) to reveal whether his family had been “benefiting from money made in Russia when the [UK] government has put in place sanctions” on firms and individuals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the BBC said.
Sunak has denied that his family benefitted from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and said that he had “nothing to do with” Infosys. Infosys was co-founded by Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty’s father Narayana Murty, who retired in 2014 but retains a small stake in it and other family members. Akshata Murty’s 0.9% shareholding in Infosys is thought to be worth more than £400m.
Infosys had said last week that it does not have any “active business relationships with local Russian enterprises.” Infosys had said that it had less than 100 employees in Russia who service some global clients based there.
In 2016, Infosys set up an engineering centre in Moscow to support its customer, Ansaldo Energia, which was developing gas turbines to sell to Russian power plants, and other clients.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, many global IT giants, including Oracle and SAP, suspended operations in the Russian Federation and expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Infosys is among those who continue to operate there, saying it has a “small team of employees based out of Russia that services some of our global clients, locally”.
