Do not do business with Russia. Ukraine encourages big western companies to boycott Putin’s country. And consumers should boycott those who don’t. Yesterday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba cracked down on three major French distributors (Auchan, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin), urging consumers from around the world to boycott them until they continue selling their products in the vast federation for, as Kuleba puts it , “to sponsor Russian atrocities in Ukraine and make bloody profits”.
The three French companies are “related to each other: Auchan and Leroy Merlin are part of the same group founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez, while the first Decathlon store was opened in 1976 by a cousin of Mulliez, Michel Leclercq. Today, Auchan has 311 stores in Russia, Leroy Merlin has 100 stores and Decathlon has 60. A curious case is that of the major hardware store chain, which was hit by a Russian attack on a shopping center near Kyiv a week ago. “Leroy Merlin was the first company in the world to fund the bombing of its stores and kill its employees,” Kuleba joked.
Businesses are in trouble, beset at home even with protests outside Croix headquarters and in Ukraine. But they react with a very embarrassed distinction. “A deliberate bankruptcy and the resulting expropriation would strengthen the Russian government,” Leory Merlin said. The Afm (Association Familiale Mulliez) speaks of 76,000 people to be made redundant.
A constantly updated Yale University study is currently surveying 400 international companies that have joined the commercial boycott of Russia, divided into five categories: those that have completely withdrawn (that’s 174 and includes Airbnb, eBay, Eni, Expedia, Ferragamo, Netflix, Spotify). , TripAdvisor and Uber); those who just went out of business (195, including Adidas, Apple, CocaCola, Dhl, Disney, Ferrari, H&M, Ike, LVHM, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Nike, Prada, Sony, TikTok and YouTube) and those who they are reducing activities (31, including Allianz, General Electric, Kellogg, Pepsi and Whirlpool). But others are deaf, like the 56 companies that are taking their time by simply delaying new investments or stopping advertising. Everything is in it: AstraZeneca, Barilla, Bayer, Danone, Hilton, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Pirelli, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and the Nestlè, which Zelensky said a few days ago was “a company that has a slogan good food, good life “but that keeps doing business in Russia even though our children are dying and our cities are being destroyed”. And 42 other companies even completely refuse to reduce activities in Putinlandia: mainly Chinese giants such as Alibaba, Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi, but in the list, in addition to Auchan, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, there are also Credit Suisse, the French Société Génerale, the German Metro, Polish Cersanit, Turkish Airlines.
Zelenski left it out yesterday also because of the disappointing behavior of NATO and the EU towards the West. “We expected more courage. Stronger decisions declared the Ukrainian President’s chief of cabinet, Andriy Yermak, in a video intervention before the Atlantic Council, one of the most important American think tanks. NATO is just trying to ensure that we do not provoke a military conflict with Russia, while we need very concrete things, but we still have to repeat them several times ». As for the EU, Kyiv yesterday called on the EU to close its borders with Russia and Belarus, emphasizing reluctance to impose sanctions. “You blocked Nord Stream 2 and we are grateful to you Zelensky said in a video intended for the 27 but it was made a little late. If this had happened in time, Russia would not have triggered a gas crisis.