In 2023, Intel’s activities in Russia were drastically reduced, leaving only one employee as director of Intel AO and Intel Technologies. According to Abachy, Alina Klushina is listed as a director of both Intel’s Russian branches. The shuttered companies suffered losses of $2.31 million last year.
This rapid transformation of Intel’s Russian business began shortly after the invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022, Intel announced that it had ceased all operations in Russia, following a previous decision to suspend technology shipments to the country (the Ukraine war began in February 2022).
A detailed timeline depicting the demise of Intel’s Russia operations is as follows:
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2021: Intel’s Russian operations generated total revenue of around $80 million.
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2022: Intel ceases operations. When operations ceased, the company employed 1,200 people in Russia.
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2023: Intel AO and Intel Technologies revenues fell to zero and recorded losses of $2.31 million. Intel employed 788 people in Russia at the beginning of the year.
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2024: Alina Klushina is the only employee and serves as a director of Intel AO and Intel Technologies.
Intel opened its research and development center in Nizhny Novgorod in 2000, nine years after its founding in Russia. It has earned a strong reputation for developing software, AI, machine vision, 5G, and IoT. This research and development center was remodeled in 2020 and employed over 1,000 people at the time. The Intel AO division is now said to have covered information processing and software development. Intel Technologies was responsible for marketing, technical support and consulting.
After the initial cessation of Intel’s product and service flow in Russia, the company restored user access to driver downloads, thereby fulfilling its service and warranty obligations. Since then, however, we have received reports showing that the sanctions imposed have failed in practice. For example, in January we reported on Russian companies buying up to $1.7 billion worth of Intel (and AMD) chips in 2023. Many of the chips reached Russia as re-exports via countries such as China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Intel appears to be continuing to hold on to its Klushina-supervised Russian holdings in the hope of favorable political developments. Hopefully an end to the war. It seems reasonable to expect losses next year of a similar magnitude to 2023 ($2 million to $3 million), likely the minimum required to maintain idle operations.