Western sanctions and central bank restrictions on trading have made Russia's stockmarket "uninvestable", according to information from MSCI obtained by Reuters, making the removal of Russian listings from indices likely.
Dimitris Melas, MSCI's head of index research and chair of the Index Policy Committee, told the news agency that the removal of Russian listings from indices was the "natural next step" to take.
"It would not make a lot of sense for us to continue to include Russian securities if our clients and investors cannot transact in the market," he said.
"It is obvious to all of us that the market is very difficult to trade and, in fact, it is uninvestable today.
"The natural next step that we could potentially implement - we haven't made any decision yet - but the natural next step might be to actually consider removing MSCI Russia or removing Russian securities from our indices."
The result of a consultation with investors could be announced within days along with the action which would be taken, Melas said.
Russia has a weighting of approximately 30 basis points in MSCI's global benchmark, and the nation accounts for 3.24% of the index provider's emerging market benchmark.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg Indices announced its intention to remove three index bonds from indices.
