Large consultancies start with an options paper before they staff a year of work. The Russian-entity file deserves the same order of operations, without a market-entry slide. The entity is already on EGRUL. The parent is already constrained. The live choices are hold (file, account, represent — including a company that still operates), mothball (minimum lawful presence), or liquidate (voluntary deletion).
Hold is not free: CIT is 25% from 2025 on whatever profit remains, nils still file, a director and an address still cost, and the audit window keeps rolling. Mothball is hold with the workforce and the bank stripped to whatever the statute still requires. Liquidation is a 6–24 month statute with a likely FTS look-back — slower to start, cleaner to finish.
A share sale to a Russian buyer sits outside those three. For many “unfriendly” sellers it has meant Sub-Commission approval, a mandatory discount, and a budget contribution that can leave little on the table. That is an M&A file. We will say so. We will not run it.
Takeaways
- Write the three paths in English before you buy a year of filings.
- Do not treat “we’ll sell it” as a plan unless M&A counsel is already in the room.
- Mothballing is a calendar, not a pause button.
This is not legal advice. See the legal notice and the sanctions framework.