State Governments, Private Companies Move To Isolate Russia

According to Lexis Nexis, a number of U.S. states have joined federal lawmakers in imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Several states, including California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Colorado, New York, and Illinois, have announced that their public employee pension funds will either divest their holdings from Russian-controlled investment vehicles or cease any new investments into those entities, for example.

The governors of Ohio and Iowa ordered Russian-made items to be pulled from store shelves while North Carolina’s Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order directing state government agencies and departments to review all existing contracts and operations and to terminate any agreements or operations that directly benefit Russian entities. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a similar order.

Lexis Nexis also reported that, according to the Yale School of Management, more than 400 private corporations have also opted to end, suspend, or scale back their operations in Russia. That number includes companies like Netflix, American Airlines, Exxon, and Moody’s, which have totally ended their presence in the country.