FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS — The Mulliez family’s supermarkets, the eighth fortune in France, are believed to have helped Russian Army soldiers involved in the invasion of Ukraine, according to an investigation by NGO Bellingcat, investigative site The Insider and indirectly Le Monde. The Auchan company is said to have organized a collection of goods, which were then sent to Putin’s troops free of charge.
The French group denies: “We do not run, support or finance any charitable collection for the armed forces”. A press release refers to an initial request from the city of St. Petersburg dated March 18, 2022. However, Le Monde responds that the emails they have point to a collection of products sold three days earlier, on March 15 has begun.
Unlike competing chains and the vast majority of western companies in general, the Auchan company continued its operations in Russia after the invasion a year ago. “Abandoning our employees, their families and our customers is not our choice,” the company said on March 27 last year. Despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging French companies to pull out of the Russian market, Auchan has not closed its supermarkets, saying it wants to meet the population’s “basic food needs”.
But the investigations released today seem to indicate that Auchan’s involvement was not only aimed at Russian civilians. The Mulliez family has 230 stores in Russia with Auchan and the other brands in its group (Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, Boulanger). The Russian market is very important and accounts for about 10 percent of total sales. Links with Russian society are strong and the group has created a collection system for food for the poor in their supermarkets, which is then distributed by local NGOs. But in recent years these NGOs have almost always come under the control of Russian power, and the collected products no longer go only to Russian citizens, but also to soldiers.
Boxes branded Leroy Merlin, the home improvement department store chain, are often seen in photos and videos of the Russian army. As in the case of TotalEnergies, which is still present and active in Russia, it is possible that French economic activities on Russian territory comply with the laws and sanctions adopted by the European Union. But the question of the political expediency of such decisions lingers at a time when French President Emmanuel Macron is repeating that Europe must do whatever it takes to help Ukraine win the war against the Russian invader.