Few tyre makers depend as heavily on the Russian market as Nokian Tyres, and the Ukraine crisis therefore lefts its mark on the company in the first half of this current financial year. Kim Gran, president and chief operating officer of Nokian Tyres, said the Russia and CIS markets “proved to be more challenging than estimated” in the January to June 2014 period due to the crisis’ escalation, and a “clear drop in sales value” occurred as a consequence. Both unit volumes and sales in the region declined; Nokian’s sales in Russia dropped 31.4 per cent year-on-year between 1 January and 30 June to €230.9 million while sales in the CIS countries plummeted 66.0 per cent to €6.9 million. Combined, the region experienced a 33.3 per cent decrease in sales, to €237.8 million. Most of this decrease in sales value resulted from the weakening of the Russian rouble.