By Anna Ringstrom

STOCKHOLM, (Reuters) – Ingka Group, the Russian owner of IKEA stores, has increased its pay period for around 12,000 employees in Russia by three more months through August. It may also continue paying workers after that time, said Ingka Group’s retail manager in an interview.

Early March saw the biggest furniture manufacturer in the world announce that it will close all stores temporarily and suspend sourcing to Russia. The reason was supply chain disruption and tough trading conditions following Russia’s invasion. The company stated at that point that the affected employees would be compensated in rubles for their work, until May.

Tolga, Ingka’s Retail Manager told Reuters: “We managed to prolong it to six months.” “We continue monitoring, analysing, and looking at what is happening, and we will take decisions as the go ahead.”

An influx of Western companies has halted their operations in Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions against Moscow. Many businesses are now indicating that they intend to exit Russia indefinitely.

McDonalds, and other firms are included. Renault (EPA:) have stated that they will pay employees in Russia at the moment.

Russia warned that it could nationalize foreign companies with abandoned operations.

IKEA works through a franchise network with Ingka as the primary franchisee. Ingka is also responsible for supply. In Russia, there are 2,500 workers at three factories.

Ingka is also one of the largest shopping center owners in the world. It has kept 14 malls in Russia, which are branded “MEGA”, open so far.

Oncu refused to provide details about where the funds would be coming from to support local wage workers. We comply with all sanctions. He said that Russia is using the assets it has.

Oncu declined to comment on whether Oncu was looking at Russia as a destination for furniture retailers.

Ingka operates 17 shops in Russia, and has one distribution centre. Russia was Ingka’s 10th largest market in its most recent fiscal year. It had retail sales of 1.6 Billion Euros, which is 4% of its total retail sales.

An Ingka spokesperson stated that the commitment to increase pay for three more months only affects Ingka employees and not Inter IKEA. Some employees were reassigned for work in returns, system, warehouse and storage maintenance.

Russia describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special operations.”