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In the third quarter of 2025 there were only five deals involving foreigners divesting their assets in Russia, with a total transaction value of $137 million, or 1.9% of the total volume, according to an M&A market report prepared by AK&M. In the first nine months of this year there were 15 such transactions worth $643 million, which is the lowest figure since 2022, according to RBC.

For comparison, in January–September 2024, there were 40 transactions involving foreigners shedding their Russian assets, with a total transactional value of approximately $2 billion, or 6% of the total volume of M&A transactions on the Russian market.

"While the departure of foreign investors was the main driver of growth in the number of M&A deals on the Russian market in 2022–2024, this year they are not significantly impacting the overall statistics," AK&M noted.

Experts surveyed by RBC attributed this decline in the number of foreign deals to exorbitantly high mandatory discounts and the hurdles in getting approvals from the authorities. "There are almost no 'easy' assets left; most of the assets on sale are complex, illiquid or sensitive, where the approval process drags on for months," Andrey Goncharenko, deputy general director of PSK-Resheniya, told the publication. Experts do not expect any leap in the number of foreign exit transactions before the end of 2025 or next year.

The conditions imposed by the Russian authorities on such transactions have been further and further tightened. For example, the mandatory transaction fee charged was increased in autumn 2024 from at least 15% to at least 35% of the asset's market value. The mandatory discount on the asset's market value also increased. Previously, they had to be sold for 50% of their actual value, but now the discount must be at least 60%. A foreign investor can therefore recover no more than 40% of the asset's value.