Coca-cola and Russia

[RuralRita]

Will you be boycotting Coke after they announced they will continue trading in Russia?

I feel tremendously sorry for the Russian people, thousands would lose their jobs if coca-cola pulled out, but I will not be buying coke now.

Reading the comments from the kids on this newsround article was the first time I cried since the start of this conflict. What terrible times.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/60590289#comments

@NCdBcOuting

^“TellMeMoreHellebore

The people of Russia ARE the ones who can help

They are the ones who can rebel and put pressure on their government! And by cutting off trade it will also have effect

The people of Russia may be innocent yes, but they are safe in their homes, unlike the Ukrainian people“^

I understand the sentiment but agree with PPs who say Russians aren’t necessarily safe. Putin’s administration keeps spitting out laws along the lines that sharing information about the war, donating money or discussing things is treason and can mean 20 years in prison. Similar laws for protesting (and all the more impressive that people still do). There hasn’t been a genuine election in Russia for years and years. People are afraid of the state. Also their livelihoods and ways of life are now disintegrating around them. It’s widely expected that Putin will start calling up anyone under 50 to serve, too. So I would urge some balance.

Another thing about these threads is that we need to not infantalise an entire people with “they just don’t know anything”. Some don’t. Some do via VPNs and family abroad. Some can access but don’t want to know. There is no homogenous ignorant mass that needs to be jolted awake by being deprived of Coke. As with everything, there are shades of grey and we would be doing the debate a disservice by looking at things in back and white terms.

Well they shouldn't be. If they are afraid of the state, they are cowards the lot of them.

Even if I had a 20 year prison sentence looming over my head , I would protest against the UK bombing and attacking innocent countries. The fact that Russians can sleep at night and let it happen because it's not happening to them, it sickens me.

It is not about the effect in ordinary Russians. Nobody is really hoping they will rise up and challenge Putin. Russia is a dictatorship and the ordinary people have no power. There may be a possibility that he could be overthrown by other powerful people within Russia if he is seen to be doing enough damage but who knows what the internal politics is within the Russian government. They are the ones who might be persuaded to act of Russia's economy is damaged significantly enough.

Businesses like Coca Cola bring money into Russia. At the moment the only real hope of persuading Russia to give up its war in Ukraine is if it is so economically straightened that it cannot afford to pursue a war. That's the purpose of economic sanctions and withdrawal of trade and business.

@FatFredsFriedEgg

I'm boycotting Mini Kievs until they rename them Mini Kyivs.

Sainsburys have done that already

What about Pepsi? I can't live without my Pepsi max!

As for the Russian people rising up and overthrowing Putin - do you really think it's that easy? People are scared - they are living under a dictatorship. We in the west have no idea what it's like living in Russia under Putin. I would suspect it's very similar to North Korea. And we have no idea what they're being told.

Don't forget our own press and government are capable of propaganda too.

@ABitBesotted

Why assume that the Russian people will be so easily manipulated, though. They withstood the Siege of Leningrad and defeated Hitler, saw off Napoleon, saw off the Mongols. I don't think a bit of MN virtue signalling will make the hugest of dents.

Slightly unfortunately, Russia also inflicted gulags, denied democracy, inflicts state sanctioned murder towards dissidents, has a horrifying level of alcoholism, is run by a dictator whose grip on reality is... tenuous, destroyed Chechnya, Aleppo, created the oligarchs, shuts down access to websites outside state media control, and arrests their own citizens (8,000 & counting, I believe) if they peacefully protest against the state, and have shut down all journalism by making criticism an imprisonable offence, just today. How the hell else are ordinary Russians going to know that there is a problem?

But hell yeah! Haven't seen Napoleon & the Mongols at the gates any time in the last 200yrs, so obviously it's working.

@Nightlystroll

I used to work with a lot of Russians living in the UK. They all really supported Putin. They had complete access to the Internet to see what he was doing but they thought he was great. I think Putin has a lot of support in Russia so I don't think we can just assume that the average person condemns what Putin has done. Many Ukrainians support his actions too.

I'd really love to see any evidence of this. Any evidence. Any evidence at all. If they supported Putin so hugely, why were they even in the UK at all for a start? As for 'many Ukrainians'? Perhaps ask the people who have been without water, electricity, heating for several days now, and are watching their world burn.

I used to work with a lot of people from both Russia & Ukraine. As well as Poland, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia... just to list a few. Thousands & thousands of them. If I sound angry, it is because I am. You have NO idea what I am hearing from them right now, so I'll just say that the Russians I know are crying that people will think this represents them.

@Lindy2

Going without Coca Cola won't harm the Russian people but it will send a message.

I understand State television is sending the message that the Russian army is rescuing the citizens of Ukraine and that they are welcomed there. Surely the fact that more and more international companies are refusing to now deal with them, after decades of uninterrupted trade, must indicate that actually something is terribly wrong.

I wish the Russian citizens no harm but I do want them to start to understand what is really happening. Information is power and they have sadly, usually been denied the information.

All of this

@bluepeacock

What about Pepsi? I can't live without my Pepsi max!

As for the Russian people rising up and overthrowing Putin - do you really think it's that easy? People are scared - they are living under a dictatorship. We in the west have no idea what it's like living in Russia under Putin. I would suspect it's very similar to North Korea. And we have no idea what they're being told.

Don't forget our own press and government are capable of propaganda too.

No one said it was easy and I think most people are fully aware of the conditions and how the country is operated. But there is 144 million people there. Even half of them standing up would take the government put.

Shall we not bring Syria into this, given this country won't even acknowledge how many it killed in its own bombing raids there (actually, the last I heard, the MOD acknowledged a total of one civilian casualty out of four thousand in a set period)? Bombing Libya, bombing Iraq, bombing Yugoslavia... all grand, no doubt. Or if not grand, still not as bad as Putin, because... er...

The hypocrisy here makes me sick. Lots of smug BBC-lobotomised pontificators who couldn't find Ukraine on a map. My DC's school's head teacher has just announced a day next year where everyone must come to school in Ukraine colours. Fine, I love Ukraine, but I seriously doubt this is going to be fun for the nine-year-old Russian boy a year below my DC who has been being bullied mercilessly since the invasion started.

@User48751490

Russian vodka removed from the supermarkets! It's already paid for and on the shelves. What is the point of that?!?

I suspect it's more to stop muppets smashing them!

well once all the coke has gone off the shelves....and you just know people are out there right now buying it all up...then you will have no choice but to boycott it ,it just wont be there to buy!

luckily there is pepsi

[quote CowboyJo]@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea You have just as much evidence as Nightlystroll regarding the Russians. People can still support their country and president while still immigrating; my Polish neighbours are so proud to be Polish they display the national flag outside the window and will not speak to any English person. I sometimes wonder why they came over if they don't believe in 'when in Rome' but then i forget they get paid a lot more here than they would in Poland, then just send the money home.

I agree though the Ukrainians definitely don't support Putin...only the Russians LIVING in Ukraine.[/quote]
I'd say that the 100 odd Russian & Ukrainian people I'm in contact with on pretty much a daily basis at the moment are a better reflection of how the average Russian & Ukrainian feels right now than 'I used to work with some Russians who liked Putin.'

I'm not one for anecdata usually, but when someone says 'many Ukrainians' or 'I know a very small group of people from one country and they think this' with no real direct involvement, then yes, I do think I have a better idea of what is going on. 8,000 people gaoled so far for protesting against Putin in Russia. They knew the risk they were taking when they protested, yet still they did it. Does that suggest to you that Putin is universally adored by ordinary Russians?

I'm sorry, but I am very, very scared for my friends. Friends in both countries, and friends in neighbouring ones. Glib 'but what about my coke?' is actually so upsetting when I'm waiting for messages to pass on, and dreading the day when one of my friends doesn't send their usual 'we're ok' message.

I agree though the Ukrainians definitely don't support Putin...only the Russians LIVING in Ukraine.

There has been a steady stream of refugees from Ukraine to Russia since 2013. Are they anti-Russian?

I have friends from Luhansk and Donetsk and they are not what you would call fans of the Ukrainian government. They are Russian-speaking of course but call themselves Ukrainian. There's a range of views (some support Putin, most don't) but one friend expressed it as, "Ukraine has to stand on its own feet and stop crying to America." (Actually what he said was too rude to translate.)

Who did you boycott when we invaded Iraq, bombed the capital, executed the president and then occupied the country?

Coca Cola? Hang on, I don’t remember boycotts of US companies when the US military murdered 7000 Iraqi civilians in the opening months of the invasion of Iraq. But now we’re boycotting US firms because … Russia has invaded Ukraine? What?

“In a 2005 report, using updated information, the IBC reported that 7,299 civilians are documented to have been killed, primarily by U.S. air and ground forces.”

Would we want to be held accountable for anything our government decides to do? I certainly wouldn't so I don't want to participate in this bashing of ordinary Russian people who are not responsible for what is going on.

Donating essentials is more efficient way of helping than banning certain russian products from the shelves. Utterly daft. Hardly going to have an impact.

The trouble with boycotting private companies in a political stance is that political 'good guys' and 'bad guys' change with frightening speed.

@allsadeyedladyofthelowlandsea 8000 jailed Russians is a very low number given theres a hundred million of them. To me, the fact that riots have not happened suggest the contrary: the vast majority DO in fact support Putin and the ones that protested are a vocal minority.

Ive seen a lot of journalist based documentaries over the years about Russia and he is seen as somewhat god like in Russia as far as I know

@CowboyJo Did i really just read that?? That little boy has done nothing to deserve being bullied.
Why the hell should his parents pull him out of his school.
People like you actually enable such bullying with that attitude. Disgusting.