Significant efforts to catalogue and record the wave of global business retreats from the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war by Russia in February 2022 were made by researchers and professors in the Yale School of Management. This paper analyzes the statuses of these firms through historical publications of the Yale database and attempts to explain the likelihood of a business retreat through many factors, such as industry sector and country of origin. Taking into consideration the grading scale proposed by the Yale School of Management, companies within the Information Technology sector, and companies originating within the U.S. had the highest percentage of eventual “A” ratings within their groups. Statistical tests meant to analyze the stock market reaction to the public companies that were given “F” designations by the Yale School of Management saw that U.S. companies had a lower return than the S&P 500 on average on 2/24/22, whereas companies within the Consumer Staples sector outside of the United States were seen to have had positive returns on 2/24/22. The paper also provides analytics detailing the scope of the corporate exodus from Russia based off of information provided by the Yale School of Management and creates inquiries that may be beneficial to additional research on the topic.

This thesis seeks to explore issues of media governance and engagement in nations at the margin of democracy, subsequently establishing the basis of a policy framework which can bolster media freedom and enhance the potential for democratic consolidation. The paper conducts a case study on the domestic media markets of Hungary and Poland, and explores foreign-influence efforts in Ukraine. It concludes with an analysis of the policy or market-based tools available to promote and protect media freedom.