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Mondelez in Russia
Mondelez chief executive Dirk Van de Put defended the company’s decision to continue doing business in Russia after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, telling the BBC it was the "right decision" to stay and that pulling out would risk thousands of jobs.
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Van de Put said he is "not pleased" that Mondelez pays taxes in Russia that he said "helps the war with Ukraine," while the BBC reported the company had discontinued new investment in Russia and suspended spending on advertising.
The BBC said the conflict is never far away for Mondelez, noting that on the morning Van de Put spoke to the BBC an office building in Ukraine had been hit and he said "Everybody's safe."
The BBC reported Mondelez operates two manufacturing plants in Ukraine, one in Trostyanets near the Russian border and one in Vyshhorod close to Kyiv, and said one plant got hit twice and was rebuilt twice.
The BBC also reported that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country has generated sales of between $1bn (£745m) and $1.4bn a year for Mondelez.
MPs and job-risk argument
The BBC reported that more than 70 MPs signed a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine to Van de Put calling for Mondelez to sever its business ties with Russia.
BBC quoted Alex Sobel, chair of the parliamentary group, writing that "Continuing to operate in a nation responsible for the deaths of countless Ukrainian civilians" cannot be justified under any definition of "business as usual."
Van de Put told the BBC he believed that if Mondelez pulled out of Russia, "They would have confiscated our plant," and he said it would have given Russia a bigger source of income to keep selling products to fund the war.
The BBC said Van de Put argued that his decision was not the most popular, but he told the BBC it was "the right decision" for Mondelez’s people in Russia.
The BBC also said Mondelez continues to operate in Ukraine while "the conflict is never far away," and it described Van de Put’s account of rebuilding costs as "tens of millions."
Sanctions, taxes, and scrutiny
A separate report in rts.ch described a "toxic situation" for Western companies that had ties with Russian authorities, saying that "many companies chose to stay in Russia and today find themselves in a very complex situation" as the war continues and Western sanctions have multiplied.
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rts.ch said leaving Russia has become more complicated, adding that "About 1,200 companies have started procedures to leave the country" and that a special commission created within the government reviews each foreign company’s departure request.
The rts.ch report also said the Kremlin is multiplying obstacles and quoted Andreii Onopriienko, head of policy research at the KSE, saying the commission "meets three times a month to review about seven requests."
In the BBC interview, Van de Put said Mondelez would rebuild every time a Ukrainian plant is hit so it can keep investing, and he said "We doubled everybody's salary when the conflict started" and "We have not fired anybody."
The BBC reported that Mondelez continues to operate in Ukraine with danger for workers, and Van de Put said "for the people that work there every day there's danger" while also insisting "We're committed there."
