In Belarus and Russia, Nefco has a long history of working with environmental projects such as wastewater treatment, resource efficiency and pollution reduction, positively impacting communities and the people in these regions. Nefco has also managed funds for Arctic Council member states, Nordic governments and the Nordic Council of Ministers to implement projects in the Arctic and Barents regions. Most of these trust fund activities in Russia focused on small and medium-sized, cross-border environmental projects with people-to-people effect.
Nefco has fully complied with the sanctions originally adopted in 2014 by the EU towards Russia. Nefco has not invested in new projects in Belarus following the disputed presidential election in 2020. Following the brutal, illegal and unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, supported by Belarus, Nefco decided to cease all activities in Russia and Belarus as announced in the statement on 9 March 2022.