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KYIV — While they are destroying cities one by one, we can look at the Russian business people, CEOs and Vladimir Putin allies who have been placed under sanctions — or we can do more useful things with our time.
People ask me: Will people in Russia take to the streets if there is absolutely nothing to eat? I answer that the sanctions and the withdrawal of foreign companies from the market are not intended to reeducate the Russian people.
The purpose of sanctions and the refusal to trade with Russia is to deprive them of the means to produce weapons and conduct warfare.
Europe funding Russia’s war
One has to recall Trump telling the Europeans: We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France, we’re protecting all of these countries. And then those countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia. So we’re supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate.
Germany, France and other countries financed the creation of the army that is bombing Ukraine today. The Russian plane that bombed the maternity hospital in Mariupol was built with Russian state-owned energy corporation Gazprom’s proceeds from Europe.
Why Western companies left Russia
McDonald’s closed in Russia not to make Russians eat steamed turnips with kvass but to avoid paying taxes to the Russian budget. And so that dozens of its suppliers and landlords would not pay taxes to the Russian budget. And so that the Russian budget will have to pay benefits to the tens of thousands of McDonald’s workers who were laid off.
You can save those children of Mariupol.
There are other kinds of companies, too. General Electric closed down for “McDonald’s reasons” so that their technology would not be used in the Russian defense industry. McDonald’s, General Electric, BMW, Shell, Procter & Gamble — all of them are now hitting the rear of our enemy, the rear of the enemies of civilization.
And at the same time, some companies (lists are online) continue to work for the enemy. Europe still hasn’t cut off Sberbank or Gazprombank from SWIFT, with money for new bombs and missiles going to Russia through this channel.
How Europeans can really help
You don’t have to wage a one-on-one war against Russian products by crushing cans of red caviar. People in democratic countries have the simplest leverage over their governments: demonstrations and even simple participation in polls. If the polls show that the majority of Europeans are in favor of disconnecting Sberbank and Gazprombank from SWIFT, they will be disconnected immediately.
So this text is to my friends in Europe, America, and Australia. You can save those children of Mariupol whom the Russians have not yet burned.
*Michael Sheitelman has advised election campaigns in Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as non-governmental organizations, such as the Russian Jewish Congress. His media management experience includes the Internet division of STB media group (Ukraine), the launch of a Russian-language TV5 channel in Latvia and other projects. He has worked as a journalist in the Russian-language media worldwide.
