In today's #vatnik soup I'll talk about sanctions and business in Russia. Most of the data and discussion points come from recently published work titled "Less than Nine Percent of Western Firms Have Divested from Russia" by Evenett & Pisani.
1/17
In my previous soup, I have written how the Western sanctions are circumvented in Russia. The most common method for this is using third party countries for importing products. Especially Eurasian countries such as Kazakhstan are common import points for Western products.
2/17
Russia has also made "parallel import" legal, which means that almost any product can be imported to Russia without the permission of the trademark owner. The problem with this is that these products have no guarantee.
3/17
But most companies don't even have to resort to this type of tactics - they simply continued business in Russia as usual. The study looked at around 1400 companies whose headquarters are located in the G7 or in the EU. Out of these, only 8,5% have actually left Russia.
4/17
One of the authors, Evenett, commented that this type of voluntary actions to leave a market often work poorly, and that similar results were observed in South Africa during the apartheid. The sole purpose of many companies is to make money without moral judgment.
5/17
Also, Putin's regime hasn't made the leaving easy. If the company wants to sell their production lines, factories, warehouses, etc., they'll have to find a buyer who's prepared to pay a high enough price.
6/17
The time span for this payment can range from one to two years, and the Russian government can also obstruct these sales or even prevent transfer of proceeds abroad, making these deals extremely challenging and time-consuming.
7/17
But many companies have probably decided to stay simply out of greed: when most of your competitors leave the market, business can be extremely lucrative. These companies and their owners don't care about filling the Russian war coffin, they just want to make an easy buck.
8/17
Some well-known companies that are continuing business-as-usual in Russia are Benetton (Italy), Clarins (France), Lacoste (France), Match Group (US), Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria) and Liebherr (Switzerland).
9/17
Many companies, like the Austrian Red Bull GmbH, have also "suspended new investments" in Russia, which for most consumer products means business-as-usual, as they didn't even have any production capabilities in Russia and are focusing solely on the wholesale market.
10/17
Yale University has published similar studies, and they have a website where people can check whether a company still has activity in Russia. They use a categorization of four distinct categories: "stay," "wait," "leave," and "exited". som.yale.edu/story/2022/ove…
11/17
Some countries that have over representation among the companies that remained, include Germany, Italy and Cyprus. 250 German companies remain in Russia. For the Cypriot companies, this number is 211, for the US 159, for Japan 90 and for Italy 81.
12/17
Only 14 German and 9 French companies have exited the Russian market. A total of 15 companies from Finland have left Russia, and most of the rest are in the process of leaving, but Russian authorities are making this exceedingly difficult.
13/17
Finland has also stopped admitting tourist visas to Russians, which has led to an interesting scheme that involves Norway and the Schengen agreement. Groups of cars from Russia arrive to Näätämö, Northern Finland via the Storskog border station in Norway to buy tax-free...
14/17
... groceries and so-called luxury products from Finland. The Schengen agreement allows them to come from Norway to Finland freely. One of the local stores in Näätämö stopped selling products tax-free already in Spring, 2022, but another store sells them as usual.
15/17
The store owner has stated that the responsibility falls on the state, not on him. Since these tax free purchases can't exceed 300 EUR, the Russians have recruited "babushka mules" ("kilomummo" in Finnish) to cross the border and buy more products for them.
16/17
These "babushkas" also get around 20 EUR shopping money for themselves. The most commonly bought products are chocolate, cheese, coffee, children's clothing, vitamins and Kuoma winter boots. These products are then often sold online or in stores for a hefty profit.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the Wagner Group, its founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and the mutiny they started on 23 Jun 2023. The event marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian MoD conflict, and finally led to the deaths of Prigozhin and Utkin.
1/22
Wagner has been used in many conflicts around the world, but they came to global prominence during the war in Donbas in 2014-2015. Wagnerites helped the Donbas separatists fight against the Ukrainians during the conflict, which helped Putin to “outsource” the insurrection.
2/22
The group doesn’t have any central ideology, but many of its members and leaders have ties to various neo—Nazi movements in Russia. For example, Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin had several Nazi symbols tattooed on his body. Neo—nazi group Rusich has also fights as part of Wagner.
3/22
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an Amsterdam-based propaganda channel, Bonanza Media (@bonanzamedia2). It’s best-known for producing & spreading online pro-Kremlin propaganda videos while closely coordinating & collaborating with the Russian intelligence agency GRU.
1/19
Russian intelligence has been extremely active in the Netherlands for a long time. For example in 2018, four GRU agents were caught while trying to hack into OPCW,an organization that monitors the use of chemical weapons. In addition, the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
2/19
…and the MH17 investigation have become targets for the Russian intelligence and propaganda operations. These operations are often complemented with “investigative journalism” media outlets, that often echo the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll talk about the recent EU elections and what are their implications for both the Kremlin and Ukraine. Right-wing political parties, some pro-Kremlin, won a lot of seats around Europe, and this result can also change the EU’s stance on Ukraine.
1/19
But before we start, I want to promote a truck fundraiser I'm doing together with the fantastic @ArturRehi and @69thSB.
Our goal is 20 000 USD, and you can contribute to this important fundraiser here:
EU’s support of Ukraine is essential for their survival against genocidal Russia. So far,this support has been delayed mostly by Orban’s Hungary (& to some degree, Fico’s Slovakia). Now, this support will probably be challenged by many new members of the European Parliament.
3/19
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss a specific propaganda/disinformation that the Kremlin likes to use – antisemitism. I also talk about how the Russian society itself has become riddled with antisemitism & how this has led to a decrease in Jewish population in the country.
1/19
Russian antisemitism works on many levels, and their narratives vary depending whether they’re targeting a local audience or people in Europe and the US. For example for the latter, Russia attempts to create a false narrative of Ukraine being an antisemitic “Nazi state”.
2/19
But before diving deeper, let’s look at a survey data of Russians in 2023: Nearly 30 million Russians harbour antisemitic attitudes, and 15% of those surveyed believed that “Jews were responsible for most of the world’s wars.” 38% think that the Jews have...
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Ukrainian media personality and propagandist, Diana Panchenko (@Panchenko_X). She’s best-known for betraying her own country by peddling anti-Zelenskyy and anti-Ukraine propaganda and disinformation for the Kremlin.
1/22
Panchenko was born in 1988 in the Mykolaev Oblast in Ukrainian SSR in 1988. She studied publishing and editing at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and later graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in law.
2/22
After graduating, Diana worked briefly for the news site . Between 2010 and 2015, Panchenko was a presenter for KyivTV, but she found her true calling as a pro-Kremlin propagandist after she was hired by a national “news channel” called NewsOne.