Samsung is suspending shipments of all of its products to Russia, the company announced Friday. “Due to the current geopolitical developments, shipments to Russia have been suspended,” reads a statement from an unnamed Samsung representative, via Samsung’s generic PR email address. “We continue to actively monitor this complex situation to determine our next steps.”
It’s not just smartphones — Samsung’s suspension includes products ranging from “chips to smartphones and consumer electronics,” a source informed Bloomberg — meaning the move cuts off Russia from a huge range of products from one of the largest electronics vendors in the world.
Samsung is also making donations to humanitarian efforts. “Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” the company says. “We plan to actively support humanitarian efforts around the region, including aid for refugees. To this end, we are donating $6 million, including $1 million in consumer electronics products, as well as voluntary donations from our employees.”
Samsung is the latest tech vendor to prevent new sales of its products in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Last we heard, South Korea-based Samsung still would have been able to ship technology to Russia despite some export restrictions, but perhaps the company made its own decision to halt shipments.
Apple, FIFA developer EA, and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red have all halted sales in Russia, and Microsoft also announced that is suspending “all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia” in the country.
Tech platforms have taken other action as well — Google has paused all ad sales in Russia, Reddit has banned links to Russian state-sponsored media sitewide, Facebook has stopped recommending Russian state media globally, and Twitter has paused ads in Russia and Ukraine. Russia has pushed back to some, however, in throttling Twitter and outright blocking Facebook in the country.
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