ASUS sign inside a store in Tehran, Iran, 2021. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the Minister of Digital Transformation, called on Taiwan’s leading electronics manufacturer ASUS to cease operations and business ties with Russia as its invasion of Ukraine continues. open letter Fedorov announced this on Twitter on Thursday.
In a letter addressed to ASUS Chairman Johnny Shi Fedorov, he called on the company and its affiliates to “terminate all relationships and conduct business” in Russia, as well as terminate relationships with Russian customers and partners, including the “supply of equipment and electronics.” , providing technical support and services”, until “Russian aggression in Ukraine is completely stopped and a fair order is restored”.
“The IT industry always supports values such as responsibility and democracy. We believe that your company also shares them. So, responsibility is a choice, a choice that determines the future. And now, more than ever, people’s lives depend on your choice,” Fedorov wrote.
“Russian tanks and missiles continue to kill Ukrainian civilians! @ASUS, the Russians don’t have the moral right to use your ingenious technology! This is for peace, not for war!” Fedrov wrote in a tweet preceding the letter.
This is the first Taiwanese multinational corporation to which high-ranking Ukrainian officials have explicitly called for severing business ties with Russia in connection with the invasion.
An overview of Fedorov’s Twitter activity shows that after the Russian invasion, he publicly called on a number of high-profile companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Visa, Mastercard and Netflix, to ban Russians from accessing their products and services.
CNN has reached out to ASUS for comment. According to Taiwan’s state-run central news agency, ASUS said earlier on Saturday that it “won’t respond at this time.”
Senior Taiwanese officials said last Tuesday they would join efforts to block some Russian banks from accessing the SWIFT international payment system and would “thoroughly scrutinize” goods exported to Russia under the Wassenaar Arrangement, which governs export controls on arms and dual-use weapons. . goods and technology – and will not allow such exports “without legal grounds.”
