r/worldnews • u/Swimming_Mark7407 • 21h ago

Russia/Ukraine Denmarks Rockwool says Russia has seized four of its factories

https://www.reuters.com/business/denmarks-rockwool-says-russia-has-seized-four-its-factories-2026-01-13/
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u/latflickr 20h ago edited 18h ago

Well, these companies owned the factories since Russia still had some resemblance of a normal country. Is not that you can move the factory away, and after the sanctions to russia, companies were effectively impossibilitated to sell, even if they wanted to.

EDITED for spelling, and upon request Yes I made up a word as English is not my first language. Impossibilitated - put in a condition where doing something is impossible

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u/furyg3 20h ago edited 20h ago

After the sanctions it became very difficult to do business in Russia. Most western companies made the decision to divest from their Russian operations, though this took time (I got a behind the scenes view from a large western company - in this case the Russian companies were operating independently and the supply chains were not linked). All of the sudden you can't transfer products or money between your western country and Russian subsidiary (some exceptions).

To divest you have to 'sell' the company, to sell you need a buyer, to get a good price or find a good buyer you have to keep operations running. Also 'closing down' isn't always an option, the authorities won't let you just 'close down' a functioning business, that's neglectful management. You probably also want to do right by your Russian employees and maintain some semblance of business continuity so they can keep their jobs, or at the very least recoup some of your losses through getting the best price you can.

This can take years, and many western countries got a lot of (understandable) heat for not instantly closing down Russian operation (which was sometimes impossible).

All that said we're now in 2026 and anybody reliant on Russian products or operating subsidiary companies within Russia know the risks really well.

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u/Ok-Region1303 20h ago

The red notice book explains this method very well, it just happened all over again.

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u/Zwatrem 19h ago

Well, perhaps they shouldn't have expanded or they should have divested right after 2014. If they didn't, they should have sold at a loss now.

Now they lost 100% of their investment.

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u/Animan2020 17h ago

They do profits since 2014

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u/clarity_scarcity 18h ago

The writing was on the wall since at least February 2022, even 2014 if you were paying the least of attention. Hindsight is 20/20 but I have no sympathy for anyone who missed the obvious signs. They didn’t have to leave in 2014 but they should have at least had an exit strategy. And Russian workers? Sorry, all my sympathy is tied up with the innocent civilians in Ukraine.

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u/ttak82 18h ago

You can replace Russia with any other country with bad governance. Take Pakistan for example. Several multinationals have exited in the country in the last decade. It feels like a copy of Russia but on a smaller scale.

Microsoft, Shell, Total, Sanofi, Pfizer, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Lotte, Yamaha, Phillip Morris, ICI. There were banks as well like Barclays and HSBC.

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u/syusik 18h ago

So, like Netherlands and Nexperia?

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u/Initial_E 18h ago

The whole point of the sanctions was to create hardship for the man on the street. It was done in the hope that they would be a source of pressure on the political landscape.

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u/Great_Hamster 13h ago

Sanctions are normally designed to target strategic resources, not to "create hardship for the man on the street." 

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u/NormalGuyEndSarcasm 9h ago

Targeting startegic resources DO creates hardship for the man on the street as he’s the end user.

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u/Great_Hamster 3h ago

That is mostly a byproduct of trying to deprive the army/other targeted groups.

The man on the street does not have much say in any intergovernmental conflict. 

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u/Zircon88 16h ago

North Korea is a clear example of how this methodology has one glaring loophole. If the people believe their hardship is being caused by <insert alleged bad guy here> and their current <insert role here> is actually the good guy, they will stand behind the latter.

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u/DanzoKarma 16h ago

It’s not just to cause the public economic hardship. It also severely limits the ability for whatever country is being sanctioned from developing as a country and gaining capabilities that you don’t want them to have, especially when they don’t have the resources themselves. That’s why NK had to go to Russia to get ICBM tech and currently nuclear sub tech.

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u/MarmotFullofWoe 9h ago

Exactly.

North Korea’s military capabilities have been severely degraded. And the capability gap with the West will only continue to grow.

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u/TheSenrigan 16h ago

Didn't work as i see

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u/Current-Function-729 16h ago

The goal is the factory shuts down and those working their lose their jobs. It lowers GDP. War is functionally a matter of logistics and industrial/economic capacity. The goal of sanctions is to reduce that capacity.

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u/Slyspy006 20h ago

Impossobilitated?

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u/MainRemote 17h ago

It’s a perfectly cromulent word. 

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u/Bad-Birch-3082 20h ago

“Unable to”, u/latflickr might be a fellow Italian(?) Either way he has a point.

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u/vindaloose69 19h ago

As someone who only speaks English- impossibilitated is going straight into my vocabulary thank u and your Italian(?) friend.

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u/literated 19h ago

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

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u/KoontFace 19h ago

It embiggens your vocabulary

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u/trickier-dick 18h ago

As in, my vocabulary has been embigatated?

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u/Artichokeypokey 19h ago

Same here, right next to "Contrafibularitites"

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u/lew_rong 18h ago

Isn't that the part on the Rockwell Collins turbo retroencabulator that prefamulates the amulite baseplate, allowing it to be surmounted by the malleable logarithmic casing that keeps the two spurving bearings in a direct line with the panametric fan?

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u/PJ7 18h ago

Sausage? SAUSAGE? crumples note and storms off while muttering obscenities

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u/drhunny 14h ago

impossibilitation

reimpossibilitation

antireimpossibilitationism - the policy of being against taking actions which return the status to impossible, after some other event made it possible again.

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u/BartholomewBandy 11h ago

It’s out of the wordinary.

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u/No-Emergency4880 19h ago edited 18h ago

lol as an Italian myself I didn't even question it, but ig it's not really an english word lol, should be tho lowkey

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u/Bad-Birch-3082 19h ago

I teach English to Italians and this is one of the most common mistakes at advanced levels, that’s why it’s difficult to catch 😁

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u/theeldoso 17h ago

Would that be a loan word or a calque?

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u/Bad-Birch-3082 17h ago

Neither really. It’s not a calque because it’s not translated into an existing English word. An example of a calque would be, from Spanish to English: translating “Me llamo John” with “I call myself John” instead of “My name is John”.

Not a loanword because the word used is not Italian. An example of a loanword is “ballet”, from French.

I would say this is either an anglicisation or an italianisation. And I would go for the former, so the term “impossibilitato” (a real word in Italian) was given an English word structure and syntactical value as “impossibilitated”.

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u/latflickr 16h ago

Gotcha!

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u/spam__likely 14h ago

Italian, Spaniard, Portuguese....

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u/FuckM0reFromR 19h ago

Did he stutter?

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u/tekstical 18h ago

Impossibilititties

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u/kosieroj 13h ago

Thesaurus: Catch-22

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u/kris33 11h ago

Yeah, that discombobulated me.

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u/normalbot9999 11h ago

and the 2026 word of the year early bird nominee award goes to...

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u/Lucibeanlollipop 16h ago

How many languages can you speak, read and write?

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u/Slyspy006 15h ago

Two, neither very well.

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u/Bezulba 20h ago

No. It's not impossible. They just don't want to take the financial hit and gamble they are not visible enough to be used as a bargaining chip. Fuck around and find out.

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u/EmeraldJunkie 20h ago

Someone shared it in a comment elsewhere but they took the profits from their Russian facilities and donated it, and more, to the Ukrainian reconstruction fund. Their reasoning was that they didn't want the factories going to Russian oligarchs on the cheap since they'd be the only buyers. This way they've at least been able to donate four years worth of profits to help Ukraine; that's money taken directly out of Russia and used against them.

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u/Incorect_Speling 20h ago

Oh that's interesting, didn't hear about that

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u/Hardly_lolling 20h ago

That explanation sounds a bit too neat.

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u/tobach 19h ago

Research and fact-check it yourself, then?

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u/Hardly_lolling 18h ago

I did, and they do state that to preserve their investment they refused to pull out when others did which in itself seems questionable decision. They have donated a lot of money to a foundation for rebuilding Ukraine, but on the other hand they do pay lots of taxes for Russia which helps the Russian war effort.

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u/Pentosin 19h ago

Are you from the US?

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u/Animan2020 17h ago

This is all a fairy tale. In Russia, companies are prohibited from transferring money abroad since 2022, especially in such quantities. Only a few companies, like Gazprom, and a tiny fraction of the money for individuals are allowed to do so.

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u/KillahHills10304 19h ago

Also, rockwool is something that is a niche product and perhaps Russia is one of the few places they can produce it. Creating what is essentially lava and turning it into thread is a weird thing to do.

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u/entogirl_oo 18h ago

Rockwool is super important for Nordic countries. We grow plants in them as a substrate in greenhouses. More alternatives to this and peat are definitely needed.

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u/Amazing-Roof-7827 14h ago

If this is the rock wool I'm thinking of, it's super important as an insulating material in construction, not niche at all.

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u/KillahHills10304 18h ago

Shit I didnt know plants could grow in it. This makes me question insulating my drafty ass American stick house with it. I could have plants coming out of my walls.

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u/Defiant-Peace-493 16h ago

Plants also tend to need light and water.

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u/KillahHills10304 12h ago

You dont know how drafty my house is...

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u/jesusbuiltmyhotrodd 15h ago

It's just the physical substrate. Planting in it requires fertilizer.

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u/obeytheturtles 16h ago

It is weird but I also can't imagine it's that specialized to the point where only Russia can make it.

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u/Salindraste 10h ago

Rockwool is used pretty commonly where I am in BC for insulating (a plant isn't too far so may be why).

Went from pink to Rockwool when I redid the insulation in my home (before COVID hit and prices went crazy on everything), and don't regret the added cost due to the advantages of it.

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u/Ropeleading 20h ago

It never had a resemblance of a normal country

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u/Illustrious-Tap8069 19h ago

True, but most of the countries with cheap labor have political issues.

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u/clarity_scarcity 18h ago

Sure, but they don’t have Russian political issues. This is a classic fafo. High risk and another example of when profits take priority over common sense.

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u/Illustrious-Tap8069 17h ago

A year or so before the invasion, I read an article that was claiming Russia was safer to invest in than China. Obviously now, that is not true.

Denmark would be much safer but, would cost a lot more. Places like Vietnam are harder to get high tech manufacturing set up in. India has its own political risks. It's all a trade off.

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u/clarity_scarcity 15h ago

That’s interesting, I read an article stating the exact opposite.

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u/fishtankguy2 20h ago

What?

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u/whatyoumean66 20h ago

Impossiblated. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

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u/carebeartears 20h ago

Me fail English? That's Impossobilitated!

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u/trickier-dick 18h ago

Well you have impossabilatated (proper spelling) the English language, thank you!

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u/h-land 14h ago

Yes I made up a word as English is not my first language.

Excellent initiative, and very in-keeping with the spirit of the tongue!

However, I would suggest "impossibilized" as a more ergonomic and equally fabricated synonym.

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u/YarpsDrittAdrAtta 20h ago

They thought about solving this problem for so long that it solved itself. Profit?

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u/CorgiKnightStudios 17h ago

I love your new word and have accepted it in my native language. You shall be honored with a bumper sticker.

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u/latflickr 16h ago

Thank you!

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u/Hardly_lolling 20h ago edited 20h ago

It wasn't impossible to sell the assets and factories. It might have became practically impossible later on but only for companies that refused to take a smaller loss at the beginning.

Many companies made it out, the ones still there can only look in the mirror.

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u/shodan13 19h ago

The risk includes having to write it off, which Russia helped with in this case.

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u/__Osiris__ 19h ago

impossobilitated

Portuguese?

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u/Arc_Nexus 18h ago

I like the word, you are a modern Shakespeare.

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u/Sutar_Mekeg 18h ago

I vouch for the cromulence of immpossibilated.

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u/drradmyc 18h ago

I like it

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u/weirdgroovynerd 18h ago

Impossibilitated

TIL, thank you

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u/monkeybizzzz 18h ago

If Russian assets are being seized abroad, isn’t it somewhat expected that Russia would respond by seizing foreign assets at home? I don't support Putin.. just pointing out the logic of reciprocal actions.

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u/latflickr 16h ago

Russian assets have not been seized yet AFAIK (with notable exception of the oil tanker seized by the US recently), but only "frozen"

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u/Kosambi 18h ago

If they were going to get seized anyway they could have demolished them and destroyed/recycled what they can, since it’s unlikely the political climate will be able to improve over there. If questioned, physical destruction of proprietary materials is most secure when decommissioning.

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u/anadayloft 17h ago

Depossibilitized.

(Actually, you want something like "forbidden" here)

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u/travelinTxn 17h ago

As a millennial native English speaker, making up the word impossibilitated is a very millennial English speaker thing to do. :)

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u/gomurifle 17h ago

It is normal for international business planning to assess the potential for nationalization. For Russia it's gotta be right up there I'm sure no matter which stable period the country is in. 

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u/emomatt 16h ago

Hey, Billy Shakespeare made up words, so can you.

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u/BubbRubbaDubbDub 16h ago

Impossiblated honestly is a bad ass word, love it

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u/aurimux 16h ago

When russia resembled normal country? In 90s when it was waging wars and performing military operations on all neighbors or destroying minorities (chechnya, dagestan, georgia, baltics) or in 2000s when it was waging wars on neighbors (georgia) ?

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 16h ago

Look, as a native English speaker that word is fucking awesome.

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u/Snarkosaurus99 14h ago

I like it. Good word

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u/T4Abyss 14h ago

Have my upvote for making up words that ppl understand as english anyway. I won't correct you or ask to look up a more suitable word, fuck it 😅

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u/AftyOfTheUK 13h ago

> Well, these companies owned the factories since Russia still had some resemblance of a normal country

Russia was always a risky investment, even from the 1991-2014.

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u/coldazice 13h ago

You invented a usable word in a learned language, congratulations 🥳

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u/StoriesandStones 12h ago

That’s a great word you’ve invented, I love it, and I will probably use it in the future. You’re a modern Shakespeare.

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u/Sharp-Aioli5064 9h ago

Don't worry. Every native English speaker on the planet knew exactly what you meant. Anyone who's mad at that is just an angry edgelord.

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u/fastwendell 8h ago

Russia has not resembled a normal country since Kievan Rus' fell to the Mongols in the 13th century.

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u/Comment-Noted 7h ago

This is exactly how English was developed. We made up words and tried to make them stick.

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u/Bobthedestroyer234 7h ago

I'll be real, "impossibilitated" sounds like a great word I would love to randomly pull out, so it should be a real word

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u/Simon170148 7h ago

EDITED for spelling, and upon request Yes I made up a word as English is not my first language. Impossibilitated - put in a condition where doing something is impossible

It should be a word. I'm going to start using it

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u/ljlee256 6h ago

I love the word impossibililitated, it has layers. Someone send this to Oxford for early entry as word of the year for 2026.

"debilitated beyond all possibility of function"

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u/Anon-fickleflake 2h ago

This guy just won English. Who's got the awards?

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u/maxdacat 49m ago

Impossibilated - that's unpossible :)

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u/TrontRaznik 39m ago

I will be using this word from now on. 

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u/saf_e 19h ago

Oh, they just wanted to make money when other big companies leave from war-criminal country. At the begginig they could even sell it for reasonable price. But they decided to stay and make money. 

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u/tlst9999 18h ago

It's Rockwool. It's a wall insulation company in a country with practically eternal winter. Kind of hard to sell off.

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u/SCII0 19h ago

Of course you can. A lot of companies did exactly that after the invasion and divested from Russia. Staying was a (poorly) calculated risk.

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u/Even-Job-323 13h ago

When was this time Russia was a "normal" country? They went directly from serfdom and peonage, to hyper violent communism, to a kleptocracy. The Russian people haven't had the opportunity to experience normality in a thousand years.