German companies cancel, delay investments in Russia

Frankfurt

FEW countries have invested more heavily in Russia than Germany has, rushing in to exploit new trade opportunities that opened after the Cold War ended. More than 6,000 German companies set up operations there, and Russia became a major customer for German cars, pharmaceuticals and machinery.

But now the rush is going in reverse. The announcement this month by the German chemical giant BASF that it had cancelled a planned deal with Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, involving natural gas extraction and distribution, was the latest example of German companies delaying projects and investment.

Opel, a subsidiary of General Motors based in Germany, has laid off workers at its plant in St Petersburg; Volkswagen closed an auto plant in Kaluga intermittently because of poor …