Many Major Companies And Countries Cutting The Cord With Russia
By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: March 6, 2022 11:30AM UTC
Last Modified: March 6, 2022 11:30AM UTC
RUSSIA - Many major companies, as well as entire countries continue to cut the cord with Russia. A growing number of companies have stopped shipping and selling products and services to the country citing Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.
Samsung announced that it is "Due to the current geopolitical developments, shipments to Russia have been suspended. We continue to actively monitor this complex situation to determine our next steps".
The move does not include just smartphones, but ranges from "chips to smartphones and consumer electronics" a source told Bloomberg.
Samsung is also now donating to humanitarian efforts. "Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families" the company stated.
"We plan to actively support humanitarian efforts around the region, including aid for refugees. To this end, we are donating $6 million, including $1 million in consumer electronics products, as well as voluntary donations from our employees".
Apple also stopped selling all of its products in Russia due to Putin's invasion on Ukraine according to an Apple spokesperson.
Although Apple does not currently have any stores located within Russia, they did ship their products via its online stores to the country.
Apple went even further by also restricting their apps for Russian state news RT and Sputnik so that it's only viewable for users located within Russia. Apple maps also stopped showing traffic information for Ukraine in order to protect Ukrainians from being targeted by Russian forces.
The Apple Store will however still remain functional for users in Russia and they will be able to continue updating their software.
MasterCard and Visa have both announced that they too are suspending all Russian operations. MasterCard has been operating in Russia for over 25 years now.
MasterCard put out a statement saying "For more than a week, the world has watched the shocking and devastating events resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our colleagues, our customers and our partners have been affected in ways that most of us could not imagine.
We have previously shared the steps we have taken in response to these events, with the well-being and safety of our employees being our first and foremost priority. And as we have navigated and complied with our regulatory commitments, we have been in constant dialogue with our customers, partners and governments.
We've received perspectives from our employees, in addition to people across the industry, consumers and our shareholders. We have also considered what would be most important to support the continued availability of services, if possible, to impacted people in the region.
It's with all of this in mind - and noting the unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment - we have decided to suspend our network services in Russia".
Visa has also announced that they are suspending all Russian operations "effective immediately". Visa will be working with its clients and partners in Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days.
Visa says that once complete, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation.
Visa's statement said "We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” said Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc. “We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia. This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values".
Russian state news media agencies have also been banned from a large number of countries and online platforms, such as the European Union and social media platforms such as Twitter, as well as streaming platforms. Many of these are citing censorship, disinformation and propaganda as the reasons for banning or blocking.
Some have asked why other news agencies have not been banned for peddling propaganda. We dug into this matter further and found the additional reason being cited by European Union officials and online social media platforms: in order to stop 'false information' about Russia's invasion of Ukraine from spreading and weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda campaign against the country.
