Ukraine's National Corruption Prevention Agency added major food corporations PepsiCo and Mars to the "international sponsors of war" list on Sept. 1.

Ukraine’s National Corruption Prevention Agency added major food corporations PepsiCo and Mars to the “international sponsors of war” list on Sept. 1.

  • Kirkkh@lemm.ee
    15·
    10 months ago

    Wtf are these companies doing. Soda manufacturer’s are at the top in revenue generation and at the bottom in risk. They print liquid money. It’s just moronic to risk the horrid PR of looking like you’re sponsoring a kleptocratic war mongering nation (like the Ukraine just accused you of).

  • 30mag@lemmy.world
    431·
    10 months ago

    Over the first year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian division of PepsiCo increased its net profit by 333% compared to 2021, reaching $525 million, and paid over $115 million to the state budget, according to the report.

    That is a little suspicious.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      2·
      10 months ago

      Bacardi? It would be off-brand for them to not back dictatorships.

          • hypelightfly@kbin.social
            0·
            10 months ago

            It doesn’t affect it one way or the other. What does is their continuing operations in Russia, who started and is continuing the war.

              • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.orgEnglish
                0·
                10 months ago

                The sponsors of war list is a list of companies circumventing everyone else’s efforts to place a defacto embargo on Russia to show that their actions have consequences. When companies cross that picket line, they undermine the entire exercise, making it easier for Russia to continue operations. The idea, for the rest of us, is to in turn boycott the companies on the list so they’ll also experience their actions have consequences.

                We have that luxury right now. Ukraine does not. So the idea is that we can help Ukraine by not doing business with companies that are making extra special bonus money by selling their products with a defacto monopoly in Russia right now

                • zephyreks@programming.dev
                  1·
                  10 months ago

                  Who’s efforts? From what I can see, only North America and Europe have joined in this so-called international embargo. In fact, not even Mexico has any sanctions against Russia.

                  What’s the motivation for including companies based in countries that haven’t called for trade restrictions?

                  Sure, I agree fully that countries based in Europe or North America should follow government policy or relocate, but I’m not expecting companies to behave outside of the policy detailed by their government.

                • zephyreks@programming.dev
                  2·
                  10 months ago

                  Because China (and Mexico, India, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East) have not really introduced sanctions (except against military equipment)? These companies are following their government’s policy, which is more than can be said for companies like PepsiCo and Mars (both American).

                  International trade is dictated by countries, not by companies. If a company is breaking the policy of the country it operates from, that’s obviously very bad. These companies aren’t trying to pick sides: their government hasn’t picked a side and so there is no reason for the company to.

      • DrM@feddit.de
        22·
        10 months ago

        If you buy a drone for lets say 1000$ from Xiaomi via AliBaba, 100$ of those go to AliBaba maybe 1$ goes to Russia. from the 900$ left for Xiaomi, 600 are gone for the production. 300 left, 3 go to Russia. 4$ for Russia. But if this drone helps invalidate only one russian soldier, that 4$ are easily worth 100000$. If it helps invalidate a tank, it goes to the millions. Thats easily worth it if there is no alternative

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          10 months ago

          I have also seen people say “I buy from Amazon, because I don’t want to support Alibaba”… like dude where do you think “VURUU” brand you just bought from sources all their shit from?

      • jcg@halubilo.social
        7·
        10 months ago

        Franklin Clarence Mars (/ˈmɑːrz/; September 24, 1883 – April 8, 1935) was an American business magnate who founded the food company Mars, Incorporated, which mostly makes chocolate candy. Mars’ son Forrest Edward Mars developed M&M’s and the Mars bar. He is also widely believed to be the god of war.

    • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
      54·
      10 months ago

      That’s not how you spell “imprison the C-suite of”. Last time I read the Constitution, giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies was treason.

      • viking@infosec.pub
        9·
        10 months ago

        Yeah but America is not at war with Russia. Ukraine is. They might not be allies, and not on friendly terms whatsoever, but there’s still a line to be crossed before considering them as actual enemies.

        • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
          14·
          10 months ago

          Could’ve fooled me. I was under the impression we were sending weapons and trainers to one of our allies who are fighting them. Sounds like an enemy to me.

          • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
            5·
            10 months ago

            Because you’re going by feelings and not actual definitions. Which is fine when speaking colloquially, but if you want to take country-level actions, you better have some law to base that on.

  • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    10 months ago

    FYI: the “the” before Ukraine is superfluous. You can just type “like Ukraine just accused you of.”

        • lud@lemm.ee
          101·
          10 months ago

          What about:

          • the England
          • the Germany
          • the France
          • the Sweden
          • the Russia
          • the Poland

          Normal country names don’t begin with “the”

          “The United States of America” makes grammatical sense. “The Ukraine” or any of the above doesn’t .

        • *Tagger*@lemmy.world
          9·
          10 months ago

          It’s actually a really interesting but of english.

          We include ‘the’ when the type of government or state is mentioned which is why it is just China but it’s the people’s Republic of china or in the case of a region, like the Cotswolds.

          Ukraine was referred to as the Ukraine during the soviet Union as it was a region of a greater country. Therefore using the Ukraine basically diminishes Ukraine to a territory of another country which is sorta what they’re fighting not to be.

        • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.orgEnglish
          51·
          10 months ago

          The name of Ukraine is Ukraine. “The Ukraine” was a USSR administrative district. The name of The United States is The United States

    • Malgas@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      They did also have the sixth largest naval fleet in the world for a brief period in 1989.

      As a direct result of trading with Russia, even.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
    4·
    10 months ago

    This explains why LinkedIn was sending out surveys today asking “What do you think about PepsiCo?”, “What are the top reasons you would want to work at PepsiCo?”, to a bunch of people. The whole thing was extremely weird, and obviously a PR campaign

  • Bipta@kbin.social
    3·
    10 months ago

    I’ll definitely be checking what I buy from these companies and making adjustments to my habits.

    Slava Ukraine.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    2·
    10 months ago

    Yeah, no. They can earn millions with Russia, so they do. Spend half on that in good PR, and you still earned millions in blood money.

    And if people get pissed? The news cycle means they’ll forget about this in about 3 days so you’re good