Russia cancelled
Throughout the past week, dozens, if not hundreds of American companies have announced, in solidarity with Ukraine, that they are suspending all operations in Russia.
In a single weekend, we've undone decades of globalization. We knew cancel culture was on the rise, but does it make sense to cancel an entire country?
In any case, I really can't criticize individual companies too much. Each one is a private enterprise, and it is free to do business wherever it sees fit. That's how capitalism works.
The only small thing I'd like to point out is that in some cases, the decision to leave may not have been completely altruistic. Instead, it was just good business sense.
With SWIFT down, the ruble crashing and more sanctions and embargoes likely to come, doing business in the motherland is about to get extremely difficult and likely far less profitable. It's probably better to jump on the bandwagon while it's popular than to see your margins disappear over the next few weeks.
One major exception is the oil companies, who thus far have evaded sanctions completely. We even saw Shell announce that it will continue to buy Russian oil but donate the profits to Ukraine.
Responding to this, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister for foreign affairs, told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that energy companies must "stop buying Russian oil."
"Some tough measures were imposed on Russia, but we all know that the biggest revenues come from trade in oil and gas," he noted.
Honestly, if the powers that be really wanted to make an impact with sanctions, they probably would have started with that. Albeit a less politically popular option, cutting off the military's primary source of funding most likely would have been far more effective than sending an entire country back to the Stone Age. | 