As reported by Russian media, the network specialist Cisco destroyed technical equipment worth 21.3 million euros when it gave up its location in Russia. A Russian news website says the equipment could have been sold.
Where is the message from? The news originally came from the Russian site C-News, based on information from the Russian state news agency TASS. In the west, the message then arrived via “Tom’s Hardware”.
“No iron for the Russians”
What did the company do? Cisco was one of the first high-tech companies to shut down its business in Russia right after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022.
But only now, in January 2023, according to the agency, the company destroyed technical equipment worth 1.9 billion rubles, which is about 21.3 million euros.
The equipment is primarily spare parts for the company’s equipment, which, according to the company’s current policy, are no longer sold in Russia. Tom’s Hardware says it’s not clear if the gear would have fallen under US sanctions as well.
In addition, the company also destroyed office objects, furniture and vehicles – values to the value of 1 million rubles are said to have been destroyed (about 11,200 euros).
According to the Russian media, it would also have been possible to export the equipment from Russia, as the German company SAP did. Or you could have sold the equipment.
But Cisco decided to destroy the equipment. The headline for the paragraph is “No Iron to the Russians” – apparently meaning that Cisco would rather destroy the equipment than let the material fall into the hands of the Russians and then be used for war material, for example.
– Solidarity with Ukraine (via foreign office)
How is that assessed? Even if 21.3 million euros sounds like a lot to us, it’s peanuts for Cisco. The company has quarterly sales of $13.6 billion and earnings of $2.77 billion, so it doesn’t matter that much.
In addition, the company is said to have already written off $67 million for the end of its Russia business.
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