By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 11th, 2024
Amazon will continue to work closely with NGOs and organizations to cater to humanitarian needs in Russia.
As many companies continue to terminate current relationships with Russia after it invaded Ukraine Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has also suspended its Prime Video in the country. As a result, all Amazon customers in Russia will no longer have access to Prime Video as the war tension remains.
Ahead of Amazon, other tech giants, including Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), have suspended operations in Russia. Netflix added that it has also halted all the future projects it has been planning to execute in the country. The same goes for PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA), which suspended operations in Russia. The Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov shared a letter from PayPal that states that the company is shutting down its services in Russia.
Amazon Announces Decision to Block Prime Video Access in Russia
The company announced the decision in an updated blog post on the 8th of March. Also, Amazon noted that it has temporarily stopped the shipments of its retail products to customers in Russia and Belarus.
Moving forward, Amazon will no longer accept new Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers that reside in both Russia and Belarus. Additionally, no more acceptance for Amazon third-party sellers in the countries. The e-commerce company said in the blog post that it would also stop taking orders for the only game it directly sells in Russia, New World.
The company added:
“As a reminder, unlike some other US technology providers, Amazon and AWS have no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government.”
Furthermore, Amazon will continue to work closely with NGOs and organizations to cater to humanitarian needs in Russia. The company has donated $5 million in support of victims of the invasion, and it continues to offer helping hands. According to the blog post, more than 10,000 employees and several customers across the globe have donated to the cause. Amazon ensures that the donations get to the appropriate parties, such as the Red Cross and Save the Children.
AWS Works with Ukrainian Customers as War Persists
Last week, Amazon announced that AWS is working with Ukrainians to secure their applications. The company revealed:
“Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this crucial time. We are helping these customers employ security best practices, though following our Well Architected Framework, to ensure that workloads are protected.”
With a market capitalization of $1.38 trillion, Amazon stock is currently trading up 6.62% to $2,970 at after-hours trading. Other than the recent gain, the e-commerce company has been steadily declining. Losing nearly 11% in a year, AMZN has shed 16.46% since the beginning of 2022. In addition, the e-commerce giant has plunged 20.03% in the last three months and dropped 12.41% over the past month. In the last five days, Amazon stock has been down almost 6%.