Is Ikea required by Russian law to pay employees for the next 3 months, despite suspending all operations (sales, production) in Russia?

Question

Ikea announced they'll still be paying their 15,000 Russian employees their salaries for the next 3 months, even though they've suspended all operations in Russia, sales and production (17 stores and 3 factories).

I'm curious if them still paying employees for the next 3 months is required by Russian law, or if Ikea went over and above that requirement.

Answer 1

The legal requirement in Russia is to pay or to continue to employ workers for two months following the notice of a layoff.

The three month period was probably chosen to put to rest questions about how to treat a mid-month announcement and any questions over the effective date of the notice which may have post-dated the de facto shutdown of operations.