MOSCOW THREATENS WESTERN COMPANIES WITH ARRESTS, SEIZURES

Huge queues outside Russian McDonald’s on last day before shutting over Ukraine war.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mon 14 March 2022:

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Russian authorities have threatened foreign companies intending to depart from the country with arrests and asset seizures, as Western sanctions take hold

According to the business daily, Russian prosecutors have issued warnings to a number of multinational companies, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut, via phone calls, letters, and in-person visits.

They have threatened to detain government critics or take assets, including intellectual property.

Russia’s first McDonald’s on its opening day in 1990. Note the small Soviet flag until the McDonald’s logo.

“The warnings have prompted at least one of the targeted companies to limit communications between its Russian business and the rest of the company, out of concern that emails or text messages among colleagues may be intercepted, some of the people [familiar with the matter] said,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Russian embassy in the United States on Sunday dismissed the report as “fake.”

“We urge local media to abandon the vicious practice of spreading fake news. The Wall Street Journal opus is pure fiction,” it said on Facebook.

It added that the decision to continue business activities in Russia “is entirely up to the Americans.”

Following the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been subjected to unprecedented sanctions imposed by Western nations, with a growing list of companies announcing their withdrawals or plans to stop operations in the country.

Russian authorities have boosted efforts to prevent money from leaving its borders and to support the ruble, which has already seen a precipitous drop in value against the dollar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that appointing “external” administrators to lead such multinational enterprises in Russia “in order to transfer them to those who want to make them work” without using the word “nationalization.”

Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office on Friday demanded “strict control” of companies that had announced a suspension of their operations in Russia, threatening prosecution if they did not comply with labor legislation.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent