Infosys said it has no direct business relationships with local Russian enterprises in a clarification of the IT services major’s operations in Moscow. The statement comes within days of UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak being accused in the British media of “profiting from Putin’s regime” over alleged Russian operations of Infosys, in which Sunak’s wife holds a 0.91% stake.

Sunak is married to Akshata Murthy, daughter of NR Narayan Murthy, co-founder of Infosys.

Infosys further clarified that it has a small team of 100 employees in Russia who cater to global clients based there.

“A key priority for Infosys in times of adversity is to continue extending support to the community. The company has committed $1 million towards relief efforts for the victims of war in Ukraine,” Infosys said, adding that it “supports and advocates for peace” between Russia and Ukraine, according to Economic Times.

Sunak said,” I am an elected public official and I am here to talk to you about what I am responsible for, not my wife”. When prodded further, he said, he is not aware of Infosys as he has “nothing to do with that company”.

As Western governments began imposing sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, several global companies such as Deloitte, Accenture, BCG, Mastercard, American Express, KPMG, EY, Grant Thornton, PwC, Visa, Netflix and Microsoft pulled out of Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The IT company began engineering service delivery centres in Moscow and Karlovac in Croatia as part of a 2016 deal with Italian engineering company Ansaldo Energia. The operations were meant to facilitate support for American engineering giant General Electric and French major Alstom Energy’s business that was acquired by Ansaldo Energia. The company had no presence in the region prior to the deal which it signed as a long-term partner of both GE-Alstom and Ansaldo Energia.