How The Most Popular Companies In US Reacted At The Current Crisis

Eastern Europe active conflict is no longer a secret. Everyone, I believe, is aware of Russia’s “great achievement” in starting a war with a democratic country in the twenty-first century. It seems to be possible and also might be possible in the future.

When I was in college, one of our professors told us a fun fact, or at least I thought it was a fun fact.

“In the last decade”, he said, “the number of male infants has increased”. Following that, he asked, “What do you think the reason is?” Definitely, no one knew.

He went on to say that when the number of male infants outnumbers the number of female infants for several years, it signals the start of a war. This acts as an equalizing force on the planet, ensuring that there are no major population shortages.

“What nonsense!” I told to myself. “Can we talk about war in the twenty-first century when almost every country accepts democratic values, when everyone is concerned about peace, and the environment issues? No. This is unthinkable.” But now I realize that he was right.

In previous weeks, more institutions and companies have attempted to put an end to the russo-ukrainian war by enacting a series of measures aimed at discouraging the conflict’s continuation.

In this article, I will discuss some of the most popular companies in the United States that have taken action against Russia.

Russian airlines and aircraft have been banned from most European countries airspace, so no airline will be able to fly over these countries. The Russian government then imposed a ban on European airlines. As a result, Russia and Europe are no longer connected by air, which is a major problem for the first one because it no longer has access to flights to and from North and Central America.

When it comes to a specific company, Boeing has made the decision to leave the Russian market.

Once it comes to financial entities, Mastercard and Visa have decided to halt all operations. Paypal has decided to put a hold on withdrawals, while Samsung Pay has disabled its service. Apple Pay is a closed system.

It’s a major setback for Russia, particularly after some countries decided to drop a few Russian banks from the SWIFT system.

The media sector is, without a doubt, the most affected.

Facebook has blocked propaganda accounts, but it has also been blocked by Russia, along with Twitter and the BBC. Instagram has disabled propaganda and exposed media-controlled accounts.

Some accounts, as well as the propaganda accounts, were subjected to a massive ban by TikTok. Russia and Belarus were removed from the Snapchat app. Meanwhile, YouTube has disabled the monetization of hundreds of Russian channels.

Disney, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. have all ceased operations. Netflix has halted the production of Russian series and has blocked subscriptions. Russian streamers will no longer be paid by Twitch.

”So PayPal has stopped working in Russia today and Twitch will no longer pay Russian streamers. Thank you very much for cutting my only source of income. I am sure this will solve all of the world’s problems” said Lina, a Russian Twitch streamer.

These are only half-measures, because by blocking access to these western sources of information, the Russian people will lose access to accurate information from abroad and will continue to believe the same propaganda that the national politicians want them to believe.

Putin’s country has been cut off from PornHub as well. Also, OnlyFans initially suspended all accounts, preventing users from withdrawing their funds. Despite this, the company has decided to resume service after receiving several reports from Russian users.

Here is a list with all companies that have decided to leave Russian market by March 2nd.

Because Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi have exited the Russian market, the population no longer has access to new cars or car parts. Chevrolet, Porsche, and Jaguar Land Rover are in the same case.

BMW and General Motors have also halted car shipments to Russia.

Nike and Adidas have decided to close all of their stores in the apparel industry. Adidas also refused to work with the national soccer team.

Amazon has banned retail in and out of Russia. DHL has made the decision to leave the Russian market. FedEx and UPS have completely stopped delivering packages.

Because Apple has exited the Russian market and AMD has banned the supply of microchips and will soon ban the supply of video cards, citizens will face future difficulties in purchasing new technology. Furthermore, an initiative was launched to disable all iOS devices and make them inaccessible.

One of the main concerns for other countries is that Russia will stop delivering oil and natural gas, but some companies have decided to take actions against.

As a result, British Petroleum withdrew 20% of its shares in Rosneft and stopped doing business with Russia. Exxon Mobil has pulled all of its specialists out of Russian oil companies, and Shell has just announced its intention to exit all Russian oil and gas operations.

In the later part, Formula 1 cancelled the contract with The Russia Grand Prix, including the Sochi event, and excluded Russian and Belarussian drivers from competing.

These are just a few of the companies that have taken action, but the list is much longer. Sure, there are losses for businesses, given that Russia’s population exceeds 144 million people… in the end, they lost a lot of customers. However, they chose not to support an illegal war in a democratic country.

All of these measures will have a significant impact on the Russian economy, with long-term consequences felt by citizens; some of them just became unemployed overnight.

Experts predict a future economic crisis that will be worse than the one that occurred in 2008, with ramifications for all countries on the planet.

The story was firstly published on Medium.