Popular music streaming service Spotify has canceled plans to open offices and launch their service in Russia, just one year after registering a subsidiary in Russia.
Spotify reportedly last year hired Alexander Kubaneishvili, a former Google executive, to head their Russian business and were already in negotiations with local mobile operators.
The Swedish company originally planned to launch in Russia in October of last year but the event was delayed to early 2015, according to a Sept. 4 report by Russian news agency TASS.
Today’s decision is even more radical. “With regret I inform you that Spotify has decided against launching in Russia for the foreseeable future. There are several reasons — the economic crisis, the political situation, new laws and the regulation of the internet,” Russian business daily RBC quoted Kubaneishvili as saying.
Kubaneishvili will quit Spotify in February, RBC added.
Several foreign firms recently announced their exit, or the scaling back of their projects in Russia, amid a ruble crisis, deepening economic recession and a political standoff with the West over fighting in eastern Ukraine.
