Which have left for good? Which have suspended ops but left options open for the future? Which have stopped investment but hang on to existing assets? Which just plain refuse to budge? This site keeps track.
There are some on the evil list that seem to make it on every evil list. Hey Halliburton and the Koch brothers – why make all this info public? Why not just do what I do? Make your direct deposits into Putin’s secret bank accounts. He’s a man who really shows gratitude for such thoughtfulness. One day I told him my grandchildren were coming round to tea and would he mind very much not poisoning my tea that week – and he agreed and just screwed my pelvis to a cake stand.
It could be argued that Subway staying in Russia is a far worse punishment than their leaving could ever be.
Pushing Russia out of mainstream companies, social networks and the like will only foster a greater division and ally them closer to China and eventually strengthen them to be more dangerous in the future.
There is no “them.” It’s “him” and a coterie of lackeys and toadies. If Putin were to be deposed and replaced with a leader who respects his own people and the sovereignty of other nations, all of the isolation would end.
I don’t think the sanctions go far enough. I think the United Nations general assembly should vote to remove Russia’s nationhood: no access to international markets, no accepted currency, excluded from international servers, no ability to issue passports, and so forth. Essentially remove them from world maps and list that land as unclaimed territory, ala Marie Byrd land in Antarctica. That would simply recognize the reality that it is not a government at all, but simply a very powerful crime syndicate with a very large turf. In that case, Putin would be referred to in the press not as President or Prime Minister or Tsar, but simply as Crime Boss Putin. It also means that should he ever leave Russian soil, he gets no diplomatic immunity, as usually accorded to a head of state. He is simply arrested and – well, whatever. He has said that the West is trying to “cancel” Russia. I don’t know what he means, but I think that’s exactly what the West should do until it acts like a nation with respect for other nations, and not like a crime syndicate seeking to expand its turf.
It is a fine line. Gotta go after Putin as much as possible while trying to not alienate the Russian people. Need to do something strong to try to get Putin out of power. It’s either extreme sanctions or a no-fly zone. Not sure which is best.
It seems to me that alienating the Russian people is necessary. It’s important for them to understand the choice: they can live full, happy, free, prosperous, peaceful lives in which they have a free press and are free to speak their minds, fully integrated into the world community … or they can have Putin.
Whatever alienation they feel, they need to understand who is causing it. It’s not the West. It will be the job of the world to embrace the Russians once the dark cloud has been lifted.
Russians are smart and well-educated, and are made cynical by centuries of bad government. It’s important to realize that, with the exception of some old people who are the Russian equivalent of the Fox News audience, the Russian people have always realized that their leaders are corrupt and deceitful, but they have to pretend otherwise. I have a Russian family, have spent much time there, have talked to many people there. They know full well, almost to the last person, that when there is a conflict between what their leaders say and what they see in Western media, that it’s their leaders who are lying. They have always known this, even back in the Soviet days, but they feel powerless to break the cycle.
Yes, exactly the right perspective. Unfortunately, your final thought moots everything else.
“Powerless to break the cycle” precisely tells us the Kremlin won’t be overturned by a popular uprising.
BTW, though there’s a vacuum of reliable opinion data in Russia, anecdotal reports that half of the population watches state TV all day long, which would mean they’re totally brainwashed, sound credible & ring true to me.
The same thought fingers why Trump & Tea Party are such an intransigent defect in the GOP & plant a seed of existential threat to democracy everywhere.
While I believe conservative delusions about economics, our legal system & personal choice vs. government make even GOP “moderates” like Cheney/Romney still intellectually bankrupt & morally wrong, the fact that they remain weak politically within the party is what makes the idea of “good conservatives” not a “thing”.
FWIW, Ukraine reveals the same to be true of progressive hardliners. They’re mental midgets, too.
While the idea of a hard line on isolating Russia appeals to me, I can’t help but follow that trail to… Say, why not let Kyiv rain a few bombs on Moscow? That’d send the Russian people a clear signal that it’s not just a “special operation” defending a couple of breakaway republics in Donbas, but there’s an all-out war going on.
My evolution to pragmatism is yelling in my ear, don’t listen to that song. The world is complicated. There’s no right way forward. There’s usually no good way to know which way into the future is brighter or darker. There’s not even a viable concept of “pareto” optimal that’ll give us any traction. We generally resort to touchy-feely impulses about “right” & “wrong” because we have to.
Putin/Xi/Trump bad. Biden, not great, but less bad. If it’s a Hobson’s Choice, we still have to choose wisely. If it’s the best we can do, we should be grateful that there’s even such a thing.
He’s very reasonable.