Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called out Swiss food company Nestlé for maintaining some business in Russia despite President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked assault on his neighbor.
“’Good food. Good life.’ This is the slogan of Nestlé. Your company that refuses to leave Russia,” Mr. Zelenskyy said Saturday during a weekend address to the Swiss population. “Even now — when there are threats from Russia to other European countries. Not only to us. When there is even nuclear blackmail from Russia.”
Nestlé defended itself against the charge, saying it changed its operations so that only essential products such as baby food, cereal, tailored nutrition and therapeutic pet foods are imported into Russia, according to CNN. Things like Nespresso coffee have been cut off.
“We have significantly scaled back out activities in Russia: we have stopped all imports and exports from Russia, except for essential products,” a Nestlé spokesperson told the cable outlet. “We no longer make investments or advertise our products. We do not make a profit from our remaining activities.”
Nestlé has a workforce of about 7,000 in Russia, mostly locals, and the company on March 11 said it halted exports from the country except for essential items like baby food.
“The fact that we, like other food companies, supply the population with important food does not mean that we simply continue as before,” Nestlé said.
“We are still one of the few active food companies in Ukraine and sometimes even manage to distribute food in Kharkiv,” it added, referring to a Ukrainian city battered by Russian forces.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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