the political development in russia over the weekend created a flutter in the international community as yevgeny prigozhin a close confidant of president vladimir putin and the leader of the paramilitary organization wagner group revolted against the russian military what led to revolt mercenary fighters of the wagner group on friday took control of rostovondon one of russias largest cities and marched toward moscow the escalation followed a monthslong feud between russias ministry of defense and prigozhin over the ukraine war the rebel leader accused the russian military of attacking a wagner camp and killing a large number of his men putin responded to the revolt by accusing prigozhin of treason and backstabbing and pledged to crush the rebellion the insurrection however soon ended with belarusian president alexander lukashenko stepping in to broker a peace deal between russia and the warring faction in the aftermath of russias aggression on ukraine that started in late february 2022 many multinational companies with operations in russia chose to shutter business in the country data from the business school imd showed that less than 9 of companies had divested at least one subsidiary in russia by the end of 2022 see also forex trading in russia here are five companies that have continued to do business in russia 1 philip morris international inc pm tobacco giant philip morris cep jacek olczak said in an interview with financial times in february that the company would keep its business in russia rather than sell it on russias stringent terms russia and ukraine together accounted for 8 of philip morris revenue in 2022 the financial times report said the strong uptake in these countries was attributed to high smoking rates and consumer willingness to switch to vapes and heated tobacco 2 procter  gamble co pg although the consumer brand stalled new investments in russia and suspended all media advertising and promotional activity it continues to do business in russia a bloomberg report said consumer brands are tied to russia due to the complicated balance they need to strike they have to protect their bottom line and local staff and retain their foothold in a major market while also wanting not to come across as morally compromised 3 align technology inc algn this medical device company which manufactures 3d digital scanners and invisalign clear aligners used in orthodontics has kept its russian operations the company said on its fourthquarter earnings call that it has incurred restructuring and other charges primarily related to rightsizing operations in russia 4 amgen inc amgn pharmaceutical company amgen has its office in moscow although like align tech it said in the aftermath of the russiaukraine war that it is suspending all nonessential business activity in the putinled country 5 cloudflare inc net the san franciscobased security and web performance company remained in russia despite the western sanctions ceo matthew prince said in march 2022 that “russia needs more unternet access not less” read next no europe no problem says russia as it steps up crude oil exports to gasguzzling china