Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Asks Americans To Boycott Companies Still Doing Business in Russia

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Russia is a terrorist state ruled by a homicidal sociopath. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

Putin ordered the Chechen capital, Grozny, laid to waste. Tens of thousands of Chechen civilians were killed. Russia’s wars in Chechnya offer a grim warning of what could be in Ukraine.

Putin order the world heritage site of the ancient city of Aleppo, Syria laid to waste to save his puppet regime in Syria, ruled by another homicidal sociopath, Basheer Al Assad. Russians used barrel bombs, and used chemical weapons banned by international law. Putin’s Syria and Chechnya playbooks foretell a grim direction for Ukraine war.

Now Putin has ordered cities in Ukraine laid to waste, targetting civilian populations instead of miltary targets in an act of terrorism. This is a war crime. Russia Batters and Encircles Ukrainian Cities, as Diplomacy Falters.

This is the war criminal Donald Trump called a genius, and considers him a role model. Trump Calls Putin’s Ukraine Moves “Genius” Because He’s a Sick Man Who Hates Democracy:

“I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine—of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna keep peace all right. No, but think of it. Here’s a guy who’s very savvy, I know him very well. Very, very well.”

Like Donald Trump, there are American companies who do not care that Russia is a terrorist state ruled by a sociopath war criminal. There are profits to be made, damnit.

Dana Milbank writes, Stop buying from these companies. They’re funding Putin’s war. (excerpt):

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made another ask on Wednesday morning, and it’s something all Americans can help with. We can stop buying the products of businesses that continue to fund Vladimir Putin’s war machine, even after its full horrors — indiscriminately targeting civilians, murdering children — are obvious to the world.

“All American companies must leave Russia. … Leave their market immediately, because it is flooded with our blood,” the young leader said, asking lawmakers “to make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy our people in Ukraine, the destruction of our country, the destruction of Europe. … Peace is more important than income.”

Most American companies get that. Some 400 U.S. and other multinational firms have pulled out of Russia, either permanently or temporarily, according to Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who has kept the authoritative list of corporate actions in Russia. Oil companies (BP, Shell, ExxonMobil) and tech companies (Dell, IBM, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter) led the way, and many others (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola) eventually followed.

But, according to Sonnenfeld, there are, at the other extreme, 33 companies (as of Wednesday afternoon) that form a “hall of shame,” defying demands that they exit Russia or reduce their activities there.

“They are funding the Russian war machine, and they are undermining the whole idea of the sanctions,” Sonnenfeld told me. “The whole idea is to freeze up civil society, to get people out on the streets and outraged. They’re undermining an effective resolution” and increasing the likelihood of continued bloodshed.

Those who want to stop Russia’s murderous attack against Ukraine should stop investing in or buying the products of these companies.

Koch Industries, whose owners gave to right-wing causes for years, is now financing Putin’s war. The people who make Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Vanity Fair napkins and Georgia-Pacific lumber are abetting the spilling of Ukrainians’ blood.

Koch To Remain Invested In Russia — Staying True To Its Stalin/Hitler Roots:

Jane Mayer’s Dark Money revealed that the vast fortune the Koch sons would spend on building the Tea Party was generated by their father’s build-up of Nazi Germany’s oil refining capacity. Per Mayer in an interview, the Winkler-Koch Co.’s Hamburg Oil Refinery “became key, according to several German historians I talked to, to Hitler’s war efforts.” Specifically, “one of the things [Hitler] was unable to do was to refine high-octane oil for warplanes.”

And that was only after “Fred Koch had worked for Stalin, where — under Stalin’s first five-year plan — Fred Koch helped build up the Russian, the Soviet oil refineries and really gave huge muscle to the oil industry in the Soviet Union.”

Fast forward, and Koch Industries, which built up the USSR and fueled Nazi warplanes, is giving over a million dollars per year to Republicans, not to mention the hundreds of millions to their conservative front group network.

 

Like Reebok shoes? They’re being used to stomp on Ukraine. Authentic Brands Group, which also owns Aeropostale, Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers and Nine West, among others, is in the hall of shame.

Before you bite into a Cinnabon (or Carvel ice cream, Schlotzsky’s sandwich or Auntie Anne’s pretzel) consider that parent company Focus Brands is taking a bite out of democracy in Ukraine.

So is Subway. While selling you the All-American Club, it’s giving Ukrainians the Cold-Cock Combo by refusing to cut loose its 446 Russian franchises.

Several other household brands — Truvia and Diamond Crystal salt (Cargill), Avon cosmetics (Natura), LG appliances, ASUS laptops, Mission tortillas (Gruma) and Pirelli tires — are produced by companies on the shameful list.

Are you or your mutual fund invested in Halliburton, Baker Hughes or Schlumberger? Then you should know that these oil-services companies could deal a huge blow to Putin’s ability to wage war — but they choose profit instead.

Let’s name and shame all the others among the 33: advertising firms BBDO, DDB and Omnicom; accountant Baker Tilly; industrial companies Air Liquide, Air Products, Greif, IPG Photonics, Linde, Mettler Toledo, Nalco and Rockwool; French hotelier Accor and retailers Auchan, Decathlon and Leroy Merlin; German wholesaler Metro; cloud service Cloudflare; International Paper; and Sweden’s Oriflame Cosmetics.

An additional 72 multinationals have made only partial pullbacks from Russia, such as reducing current operations or holding off on new investments — actions Sonnenfeld calls “very questionable” and “smokescreens.” Included here: Dunkin Donuts, General Mills, Mondelez (Oreos and other Nabisco products), candymaker Mars, Procter & Gamble, Yum Brands (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott.

All these businesses could be doing more to stop Putin’s savagery and war crimes. Because they won’t, we all should do more to stop them. Go to Sonnenfeld’s website via Yale’s School of Management to make sure you aren’t funding the businesses that are funding Putin’s war machine — and reward the vast majority of companies that share Zelensky’s belief that peace is more important than profit.

Since publication, Yale’s Sonnenfeld has moved the following companies from Category 4 (“Digging In — Defying Demands for Exit or Reduction of Activities”) to Category 3 (“Scaling Back — Reducing Current Operations/Holding Off New Investments”): Air Liquide, Baker Tilly, Focus Brands, Linde and Rockwool. Mettler Toledo moved from Category 4 to Category 2 (“Suspension — Keeping Options Open for Return”). Young Living, a seller of essential oils, was added to Category 4. For future updates, visit Sonnenfeld’s site.





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2 thoughts on “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Asks Americans To Boycott Companies Still Doing Business in Russia”

  1. UPDATE 3/31/22: Dana Milbank writes, “Koch Industries’ valentine to Vladimir Putin”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/30/koch-industries-russia-investment-boycott/

    Give Koch Industries credit for consistency: It’s aiding the foes of democracy at home and abroad.

    In the two weeks since I wrote about U.S. companies that remained in Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s savage invasion of Ukraine, corporations have, admirably, continued stampeding to the exits.

    More than 450 multinational companies have withdrawn from Russia in some form, according to the list maintained by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team at the Yale School of Management, sending a clear message to Russians that Putin’s actions are beyond the pale.

    Some of the pullbacks from Russia have been little more than a “smokescreen,” Sonnenfeld says, including candy makers Nestlé and Mondelez; sandwich-chain Subway; hoteliers Hilton and Hyatt; agricultural giants Cargill and ADM; and oil servicers Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes. But these firms at least made symbolic gestures.

    Then there’s the worst of the worst, in Sonnenfeld’s lowest category — those corporations “Digging In” and refusing to reduce activities in Russia. Only eight U.S. companies have this dubious distinction, Sonnenfeld’s team tells me: medical-device maker Align Technology, Internet company Cloudflare, International Paper, tire manufacturer Titan International, insurer FM Global, crane maker Manitowoc, laser producer IPG Photonics — and that recidivist corporate offender, Koch Industries.

    Koch chairman Charles Koch (brother David died in 2019) is a top funder of right-wing candidates and causes, notably efforts to roll back voting rights. Now the maker of Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups and many other household brands is aiding Russia as it rolls back democracy in Ukraine rather less subtly.

    Koch, keeping two glass manufacturing plants running in Russia, says it “will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government,” arguing that doing so would “do more harm than good.”

    Sonnenfeld called those claims “absolutely ludicrous,” “arrogant” and “such a tortured logic it’s beyond absurd.” Koch’s website indicates that its software business Infor, its electronics business Molex and its industrial products business Koch Engineered Solutions also continue to do business in Russia. Their imports, exports and taxes help prop up the Russian economy, and therefore Putin’s war effort.

    At the same time, various Koch-funded groups have been arguing against sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States. As Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby of the newsletter Popular Information reported, Dan Caldwell, vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, an umbrella group for the Koch network, said the “Stand Together community” believes that “broad-based economic sanctions rarely achieve their desired policy outcomes.” Caldwell previously suggested “neutrality” between Russia and Ukraine. Similar criticism of sanctions came from people affiliated with the American Institute for Economic Research, Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, all groups with Koch ties.

    The Koch posture toward Russia is consistent with longtime efforts by Koch interests to fight democratic protections in the United States. The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council has promoted voting restrictions in states. Various Koch arms have funded initiatives and candidates that would limit voting access. Stand Together played a key role in defeating an election-reform and voting-rights package in Congress, as the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported.

    Americans concerned about the Koch threats to democracy can keep their shopping carts free of Mardi Gras and Vanity Fair napkins, Quilted Northern and Angel Soft, Brawny and Sparkle, Georgia-Pacific office products, and Cordura fabrics, all goods produced by the oil, chemical and industrial conglomerate.

    Among the “featured investments” on Koch’s website is an (apparently outdated) boast about an ownership stake in American Greetings. [T]he maker of greeting cards offers all kinds of ways to put in words the sentiments Koch Industries has, through its actions, been sending to the world.

    To the more than 40 million innocent Ukrainians attacked and bombarded by Putin: “So doggone sorry. Forgive me?”

    To the families of the thousands killed by Putin: “Tonight, when you look up, don’t think of them as stars. Think of them as porch lights, welcoming your loved one safely home.”

    To the 10 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes: “Toodle-oo, hasta la vista, sayonara. … Just to say goodbye and to wish you a world of happy new beginnings!”

    Alas, a Koch spokesman, Rob Carlton, tells me Koch ditched its investment in American Greetings (but not in Russia) and that its website is “a bit out of date.” Sad! Now, the only American greeting Koch sends Putin is a most unfortunate one: “Hang in there.”

  2. The Koch’s daddy made his money working for Stalin. He claims he hated what he saw Stalin doing but took Stalin’s money anyway, so, you know, BS, money over people.

    Never expect the Koch’s to do the right thing.

    IBM still has the stink of Hitler even after all this time.

    Hey, here’s a fun thought game to play, what if the USA didn’t spend the last 40 years taking dirty money for penthouse apartments from Russian crime lords? What if there wasn’t a Little Russia in Miami filled with Russian gangsters and their mistresses?

    I saw a graph the other day of 13 condos and apartments around Central Park in NYC owned by Russian mobsters worth over half a billion dollars.

    For just 13 condos. What if we cared about blood money more than high end real estate values?

    I wonder, if we didn’t allow these shell companies covering for murderers to buy these properties while people like T4ump wink wink at where the money came from, maybe Putin wouldn’t have had such a long run and may T4ump would have been impoverished instead of POTUS.

    Funny, looking back, it’s almost as if doing the right thing costs less in the long run and makes the world a safer place.

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