The withdrawal of foreign companies from the Russian market will severely affect competition in the country, and even the acquisition of assets by Russian managers will not cover the loss of the economy from this, according to Sberbank CEO German Gref. About it writes RBC.

“I do not evaluate well the departure of foreign vendors from the market. No Russian companies will not be able to maintain the level of competition that was, and getting some assets – and relatively inexpensive – will be a one-time profit for someone, but long-term the economy will lose, because the density of competition will decrease. What we are talking about – innovation, the main means of developing innovation – is very fierce competition. Where there is no competition, there is no innovation. And in this sense, I think that one of the most long-term negative consequences for the Russian economy is the departure of powerful foreign companies from the Russian market and the reduction [of competition],” Gref said at the Finopolis forum in Moscow.

On the other hand, the departure of foreigners makes it possible to save money, according to VTB (MCX:VTBR) CEO Andrei Kostin, who spoke at the same forum:

“We started the process of transition along the lines of import substitution to our own products as early as 2019. And if in 2019 we had 90% dependence on foreign products in all key IT categories, today it is already less than half, and by the end of 2024 we plan to do it almost 100% by ourselves in critical infrastructure.”

“And this, of course, gives us an opportunity to develop today. And to a lesser extent – although I agree with Herman, there may be nothing good in the departure of the largest companies – but, by the way, it gives us not only political or business protection, but it also saves money. We have calculated that this will save us about 500 billion rubles over the next three years, because we make these products ourselves now and do not have to pay the huge sums of money that foreign companies used to charge us,” he emphasized.