Why are the Big 4 firms of accountants still operating in Russia?

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I checked the websites of the Big 4 firms of accountants in Russia this morning. None of these firms (PWC, EY, Deloitte, KPMG, with links to their Russian sites in each case) provides any indication at all on their Russian websites that there is a war going on in Ukraine.

There are, instead, comments like this from Deloitte:

What is actually staggering is that this site still suggests that the Ukrainian and Russian practices are linked as if they serve a single organisation - the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States. That rings somewhat hollow.

I have a simple question for each of these firms this morning, and it is why are they still operating in Russia?

Asking this I am aware that each of them can make a claim like this from KPMG in Russia:

The ruse used is to claim that each national organisation within KPMG is supposedly independent of all others, linked only through their common membership of the KPMG global organisation. This is the same for all these firms. They can therefore seek to wriggle out of responsibility for this situation by claiming that they cannot control their Russian firm.

But as Deloitte shows, those Russian firms are claiming they are integrated members of the global entity, using its employment data amongst other things to indicate their scale. The link is very real in that case. And the option for expelling the Russian firm must exist for all these firms.

In that case these firms cannot deny their responsibility for the fact that right now they are providing audit, accountancy, taxation and advisory services to the state and private entities that are supporting the Russian war machine that is being used to commit war crimes in Ukraine.

So, the question is when will PWC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY expel their Russian member firms and break all ties with them? It is unacceptable that the Big 4 underpin the Russian economy in the way that they are doing now. The time for them to claim that their global approach demands this is well and truly over.


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