Populism has hit the value orientations of international companies. Due to the war in Ukraine, further cooperation with the aggressor country is unacceptable for Western society.
Therefore, international companies resort to substituting concepts and manipulating populist statements. Some of them loudly announce the end of cooperation with the aggressor, but in fact continue to increase the budget of the Russian Federation through investing billions in such companies as Philip Morris International. This was stated by the founder of the Institute of Cognitive Modeling Viktor Berezenko during the 31st Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.
“International companies and organisations that earn billions on business in the Russian Federation, due to their populism, unfortunately, one way or another contribute to the murder of thousands of civilians in Ukraine. After all, the taxes paid to the Russian budget go to the production of missiles, bullets and shells. Yes, these companies help Ukraine to a certain extent and doing PR on this. But at the same time, their income from working for the Russians is hundreds and thousands of times more than donations to the Ukrainians who suffered from the war. This is populism, which kills,” Viktor Berezenko commented.
A typical example of such populism is the humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the amount of $8 million announced by Philip Morris International, says the expert. Both sum and impact are significant. But there is a catch. This tobacco company transfers hundreds of times more to the Russian budget – $2.5 billion in the past year. This is the price of 400 Kalibr-class missiles or more than 8.5 thousand missile complexes.
“By feeding the aggressor, populists will eventually face the consequences of their own actions. When the war hits their homes, destroys their usual life and the lives of their loved ones, they will forget about everything they did before. The world is not fair — that’s what they will keep saying. For this, I have an answer: “Yes, the world is not fair. You made it so,” Berezenko said.
The war in Ukraine has once again demonstrated the weakness of public institutions to combat populism. It has become a disease of a democratic society and continues to progress.
In this context, the expert cites the example, set by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and its head Mykhailo Fedorov. Since the beginning of the war, Fedorov has been working through negotiations to completely isolate the aggressor from modern technologies. Now such giants of the digital industry as Apple, Google, Amazon, Nokia, Ericsson, SAP, Oracle and many other companies have already left russia. Moreover, due to the successful information campaign of the Ministry, a number of companies that have left the Russian market are going to expand their activities in Ukraine.
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