IKEA Holds Laundry From Today Before Leaving Russia, But Only Serves Online Purchases

Illustrated IKEA from Russia. (Wikimedia Commons / Vmenkov)

JAKARTA - Swedish furniture giant IKEA opened business for the last time in Russia on Tuesday, rolling out an online laundry service for all of its products, before leaving the country.

"Starting July 5 for a few weeks, you can buy IKEA goods only on ikea.ru. Items will be sold while supplies last," IKEA said on its Russian website.

Selling surplus inventory and generating revenue in Russia can be surprising, given the public and political pressure on companies not to do business there.

IKEA still operates 14 malls in the country under the MEGA brand, although it said it was exploring options for 17 furniture stores there that remained closed.

Dozens of companies have suspended operations in Russia since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine in late February, in what it calls "special operations".

Meanwhile, less than 40 other companies decided to sell assets or hand over their business to local managers.

IKEA said last month it would sell factories, close offices and reduce its 15,000 workforce in the country, as it did not expect to resume sales for the foreseeable future.

Its owner, Ingka Group, said in June it was open to returning to Russia one day, but that was not the case now. However, IKEA said it would continue to pay its nearly 15,000 staff in Russia until the end of August.

It is known, the IKEA online shopping site had experienced problems. Items cannot be added to the online cart by 12:30 in Moscow (0930 GMT).

"For technical reasons, accepting orders via cart on the website is temporarily unavailable. We are working to resolve the issue," reads the IKEA website.

IKEA deleted an earlier message that read: "We are currently processing orders received manually."