On March 10th, 2022, a couple of weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nintendo announced that it would stop shipping its products to Russia due to the volatility involved with logistics and shipping. The digital eShop store was already unavailable at that point due to issues with payment in Rubles after the sanctions.
Earlier this week, though, a report from Russian media revealed that Yasha Haddazhi, the current CEO of Nintendo Russia, had set up an import company called Achivka in the same headquarters.
Now, Nintendo has provided an official statement to GamesIndustry.biz. On the one hand, they say the Russian subsidiary is in the process of winding down and that they have no affiliation with the local import of Nintendo products; on the other hand, they acknowledge that they are looking to partner with companies to honor repair and warranty services of previously sold products and that Achivka is one such potential partner.
Nintendo has decided to wind down the operations of its Russian subsidiary. It will maintain a minimal presence to fulfill legal, contractual, and administrative obligations.
We are aware that several companies in Russia operate parallel imports of goods, including Nintendo products. Nintendo is not affiliated with such companies and has no involvement in parallel import activities in Russia.
We continue to investigate solutions to honour preceding commitments to our customers in the Russian market. In this vein and a spirit of transparency, we are in advanced discussions with potential suppliers of repair and warranty service for Nintendo products that had already been sold in the Russian market, with LLC Achivka being one such potential supplier.
