Putin tells businesses: support conflict, be complicit in war crimes or leave Russia

Multinational companies in Russia are now obliged to assist the Kremlin with war mobilization: a Business 4 Ukraine note:

***

International companies, including banks, are now obliged to assist the Kremlin’s war mobilization by helping conscript soldiers and equip the army. Between them, they have at least 700,000 employees and $141 billion in assets, according to an analysis by B4Ukraine – a coalition of Ukrainian and international civil society organizations. B4Ukraine is urging multinationals to leave Russia immediately to avoid becoming directly complicit in Russia’s devastating war, war crimes, and atrocities in Ukraine.

On September 21, 2022, almost seven months into Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilization in Russia. The accompanying legislation on mobilization - known as Article 9 of Federal Law No. 31-FZ - mandates all organizations, including international companies, to conduct military registration of the staff if at least one of the employees is liable for military service. They must also assist with delivering the summons from the military to their employees, ensure the delivery of equipment to assembly points or military units, and provide buildings, communications, land plots, transport and other material means as well as information.

“Putin’s actions make the clearest demands on businesses to date: either support the conflict and be complicit in war crimes or leave Russia. Normally, we shouldn’t see such a clear binary in a conflict situation: leaders should not require businesses to participate in war crimes, but that’s what Putin is doing now. The impact is clear: foreign businesses need to cut their ties. This can result in significant losses for those businesses but the alternative is worse. This should also send a clear signal to businesses that they need a better plan of action for how they disengage from situations of conflict and authoritarianism,” said Tara Van Ho, Co-Director of the Essex Business & Human Rights Project at the University of Essex.

The legislation applies to all of the 1,610 companies that are currently operating on a full or limited scale in Russia. Analysis from the Kyiv School of Economics reveals that 87% of people employed by multinationals in Russia work for companies from 10 countries: the USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Italy, Greece, China, and the Netherlands. In particular, US companies employ 251,294 people in Russia, French companies employ 123,642 people, and German companies employ 91,280 people. These companies work in the automotive sector, food and drinks, tobacco, retail, pharma, electronics sector, and many others.

According to Russian media, businesses have already begun preparations for a possible mobilization of employees, including creating special mobilization departments. “So far, most of the multinationals operating in Russia have been indirectly involved in the war by paying taxes to the Russian state, contributing to the war economy. Now the Kremlin’s mobilization makes companies directly involved in conscripting the soldiers among their employees who will come to Ukraine to kill and occupy,” said Nataliia Popovych, Founder of One Philosophy and WeAreUkraine.info, adding: “It gives carte blanche to Russia’s authorities to pull resources from companies. This is a red flag for companies who have chosen to remain in Russia. Your risk of complicity in Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine is now very real.”

“Regardless of whether a business is under sanctions, the international responsibilities for companies are clearly set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” added Popovych. “It is an obligation for international companies to understand how their operations cause, contribute to or are linked to impacts on rights-holders and the conflict itself. How a company chooses to meet its obligations to protect and respect rights in Ukraine will define its reputation far beyond Russia for years to come.”

---

The B4Ukraine coalition is an informal initiative driven by civil society groups, policy think tanks, researchers, and concerned professionals from Ukraine and around the world. A common purpose unites the coalition members: to block access to the economic and financial resources enabling Russian aggression, which is an attack on the rules-based international order itself

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog