Advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Mykhaylo Podolyak, February 28, 2022.
Kyiv – Only nine percent of almost 1,500 global companies left the Russian market during of Russia's war against Ukraine, which has been going on for almost a year, says the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Mykhaylo Podoljak. At the same time, he encouraged the West, whose market is more important to multinational companies than Russia, to react strongly.
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“Among the Western companies that continue to do business in Russia, the largest part are German (19.5 percent), American (12.4 percent) and Japanese companies (seven percent). Firms such as Metro, Leroy Merlin, Auchan, Nestle, Unilever, Procter&Gamble, Siemens, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Bayer, Acer, Alibaba, CloudFlare, Societe Generale, Credit Suisse, Lenovo, Asus, Cersanit and others,” wrote Podoljak on the social network.
According to him, some Western banks managed to generate exceptionally high profits in Russia during the year of the war. “(Austrian financial institution) Raiffeisen Bank increased its profit in Russia by 313 percent. Last year, the profit of the Russian branch was 474 million euros (about 11.26 billion CZK), which is the largest amount of all branches in South-Eastern Europe,” he pointed out.< /p>
According to him, Raiffeisen Bank contributed EUR 94.8 million (about CZK 2.25 billion) to the Russian state treasury in income tax alone, and other levies are much higher, according to him. “This is a tax on the war, on the murder of Ukrainians,” he emphasized, accusing the bank of recognizing the separatist “pseudo-republics” in the Donbass by offering loan holidays to the mobilized soldiers there. This example, according to Podoljak, was followed by Citibank, Credit Europe Bank and OTP Bank.
The American company Procter&Gamble, which also includes the brands Gillette, Fairy, Tide, Ariel, Lenor, Mr. Proper, Pampers, Always, Head & He called Shoulders, Pantene, Old Spice, Hugo Boss, Max Factor and others a sponsor of the war.
Global companies that continue to do business in Russia pay taxes to the Russian budget that are used for the production of weapons. In total, according to Podoljak, these companies earned almost 290 billion dollars (about 6.4 trillion CZK) in Russia, which represents a fifth of Russia's gross domestic product. Companies are also obliged by Russian law to help draft their workers into the army.
“Not to leave Russia in a year of war – this is not a coincidence, but a conscious position. The collective West, whose market is more important for multinational corporations than Russia , should show a tough attitude,” urged Podoljak.
