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Russian companies need to become far more competitive before foreign players, including the Chinese, flood into the domestic market. This was stated by Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), TASS reports.

Foreign competitors are unlikely right now to enter the Russian market, Shokhin said, "and their return is therefore still a long way off for political reasons. But Russian businesses should use this temporary delay to implement investment plans and increase their competitiveness."

Shokhin continued that the issue is not so much the return of the Western companies that left, but the possible influx of Chinese companies, for example. "Here we come back to face the issue of Chinese competitors. If the Chinese, or companies from other countries with approximately the same potential, make a mass entry into certain segments of the Russian market, will our people be able to withstand the competition or not?" the RSPP president asked. 

The key factor in competitiveness is the ability to operate in foreign markets, Shokhin believes. "If you cannot export your products, then you're not competitive. If you need to protect the domestic market in order to compete with the Chinese and so forth, then again you have uncompetitive products," he stressed.

In the spring of 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered criteria to be prepared for the return of foreign businesses. He stated in particular that those who sold their businesses in Russia at a discount should not be able to buy them back at the same low price upon their return. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Delovaya Rossiya, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have developed their proposals on the conditions under which the return should take place. The main principle that the authorities intend to follow is "do not harm your own," said Valery Limarenko, head of the State Council's Investment Commission (and Governor of Sakhalin Region), in October. "We need to protect the Russian businesses that have emerged over the past two to three years and have effectively replaced the foreign companies that quit the Russian market," he said at the time.