US Chamber of Commerce chief suggests which businesses are thinking of returning to Russia
Major US companies from the energy and IT sectors have an interest in returning to Russia, Robert Agee, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham Russia), told RBC TV channel. But to say "they will come back tomorrow is a bit premature," Agee said: these companies "are just standing in line – they are looking, thinking," and assessing the conditions for returning.
The return of American businesses to Russia will require several conditions to be met, Agee believes: first of all, the signing of a peace agreement on Ukraine and the lifting of sanctions. According to the AmCham Russia chief, approximately 20% of US companies that quit Russia in 2022-2023 left with options to buy back their assets. Those agreements expire in 2026-2027.
In July 2025, the Government Commission on Legislative Activity approved legislative amendments restricting foreign investors from exercising their options to repurchase Russian companies that were sold after the military operation in Ukraine began. The ability to disallow the options from being exercised was supposed to apply mainly to companies in the consumer sector, such as Vkusno i Tochka (formerly McDonald's in Russia). However, over the summer the State Duma ended up not passing these amendments, which raised questions from the legal community. It is likely that the amendments will be finalised in the autumn in order to be eventually passed in one form or another.
Separately, Agee commented on the situation concerning ExxonMobil oil and gas corporation, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a recent decree, de facto authorised the return of its stake in the Sakhalin-1 project if a number of conditions are met. "I think this signal will be favourably received," Agee said. So far, there is no talk of ExxonMobil being ready to return, but "this is a very good, positive signal" – a sign for US businesses that there will be "good support for a return".
The decree was signed on 15 August, the day the Russian and US presidents met in Alaska. In October 2022, Putin transferred the Sakhalin-1 project to Russian jurisdiction: Sakhalin-1 LLC became the project operator instead of Exxon Neftegaz. The foreign consortium members –Japan's SODECO and India's ONGC – agreed to continue participating in the project by receiving respective stakes in the new operator. However, Exxon announced its withdrawal from the project and its 30% stake was forced to be put up for sale.
Under the decree, the conditions for ExxonMobil's return include crediting the Russian operator's bank account with funds from the liquidation account, signing contracts for the supply of foreign-made equipment and spare parts required for the project, and taking actions that lead to the lifting of sanctions negatively affecting the project's implementation.