Apple stops selling in Russia, adding to pressure from growing list of companies

Russia-Ukraine war: Apple has stopped sales of iPhones and other products in Russia.

American big brands including Apple, Google and Harley-Davidson on Tuesday cut sales and distanced themselves from Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, joining a growing list of companies from shippers to car makers to energy companies shunning the country.

Apple Inc said it had stopped sales of iPhones and other products in Russia and Harley-Davidson Inc suspended its business and shipments of its bikes.

The world's biggest shipping lines, MSC and Maersk, on Tuesday suspended container shipping to and from Russia, deepening the country's isolation.

The West has imposed heavy restrictions on Russia to close off its economy from the global financial system, pushing companies to halt sales, cut ties and dump tens of billions of dollars' worth of investments.

"We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence," Apple said in a statement announcing a pause in sales in Russia and other measures including limiting Apple Pay and dropping the ability to download RT News outside of Russia.

"We have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens," it added.

Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc's Google confirmed on Tuesday that it had removed Russian state-funded publishers such as RT from its news-related features.

The MSC and Maersk moves mean that Russia – the world's eleventh-largest economy and supplier of one-sixth of all commodities – is now effectively cut off from a large chunk of the globe's shipping capacity.

To stem the stampede, Moscow said on Tuesday it would temporarily curb foreign investors from selling Russian assets but energy firms BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have already decided to abandon their Russian businesses, while leading banks, airlines, automakers and more have cut shipments and ended partnerships.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is looking in to leaving Russia, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, a move that would make it the first European bank to do so since the invasion.

Mining and commodities group Glencore Plc said it is reviewing all business activities in Russia, including equity stakes in EN+ and Rosneft.

"The corporate world is building up a fortress to isolate Russia from the international community," Hargreaves Lansdown senior investment and markets analyst Susannah Streeter said.