Getting corporates to bring Russia to its knees
The launch project of the Moral Rating Agency, and for which it was created, is ‘Still Supporting Russia?’.
On this site, we investigate, rate and expose the extent to which the world’s largest corporations are involved with Russia. We will focus on this issue until it is resolved.
The goal is to provide consumers, shareholders, and the media with transparent information on corporate behavior so they can boycott companies’ brands and shares, in order in turn to cause companies to boycott Russia while governments are failing to force them to do so.
It is not sufficient to wait for Western governments to decide or fail to decide to impose proper sanctions on doing business with Russia. For why we cannot rely on them and must ourselves participate in the ‘moral pressure ecosystem’, see Moral Ecosystem.
We also encourage the media to use our data as a base to interview companies about their continuing business with Russia and to take each juicy story forward with their larger audiences. This way we can have the best chance of a leveraged impact.
The rating system has been developed to specifically focus on corporate involvement with Russia. It covers five variables of corporations’ moral behavior on this topic: the extent of their withdrawal (Degree), how quickly they do so (Speed), the conviction with which they do it (Attitude), the sacrifice involved (based on their Exposure) and their potential economic impact (based on their Power) which carries a moral responsibility to wield it. See Rating Methodology.
Our investigations and ratings on the largest 200 corporations in the world show that many have not withdrawn from Russia, while many others have made Announcements that are Partial or Incomplete. This group of Partials and Incompletes covers more than half (57%) of those that had business with Russia at the time of the invasion of Ukraine. They are being made false heroes, even in the serious media. See Shades of Red. By comparison, only 5% of companies have withdrawn totally and 38% have not made Announcements.
The invasion of Ukraine is wrong and is being pursued barbarically. Meanwhile, the existence of an autocratic regime in Russia is wrong and is dangerous for world peace and the stability of democracy and the ideals of the Free World.
The Moral Rating Agency is therefore against the continuation of the Russian regime over and above its war with Ukraine. Therefore, our policy is to get, and keep, companies out of Russia so long as it remains autocratic, even though the unquestioned mission at hand is to get Russia out of Ukraine.
If and when the war comes to an end, as most do, there will inevitably be a movement by companies and the international community to forgive or partially forgive Russia and jump back into Russia at the first excuse, recommencing trade, buying back the assets they sold, or cancelling the sale of assets they had promised but didn’t get around to selling.
We are strongly opposed to this. We expect companies to ‘stick with the program’. The invasion of Ukraine is a symptom and not the disease. Russia should only be welcomed back into the community of civilized nations when it is no longer run by Putin or any such successor. That means corporations not only need to withdraw now but also not return until true democratic and civilized national status conditions are met. We will be monitoring this risk of corporate return and will be exposing it if and when it happens.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a wake-up call to the Free World, made louder by the way it has been executed, which actually presents an opportunity to build unprecedented Western unity and popular support against Putin’s regime. The Free World must capitalize on this new view and have a patient and consistent policy of not aiding the economy of an enemy, a direct enemy but also an enemy to freedom and civilization.
To that end, at the Moral Rating Agency, if companies return to Russia while it is still autocratic, they will lose any preferential Moral Rating they obtained by withdrawing and begin their journey again from the bottom of the ladder, while we admonish them all over again for which we have a category-in-waiting called U-Turn .
We are giving fair warning to companies to withdraw without further delay (see Warning) and advising them that their inactions, and unsatisfactory actions (see Shades of Red), will be permanently recorded on a historical basis at the Moral Rating Agency. This should act as a disincentive to them believing they will be able to delay actions and later wipe the slate clean (see Indelible Ledger).
Each week, we plan to expand the number of companies we are investigating and monitoring, and be ready and waiting to expose them if they return to Russia after a period of abstinence. If we have success with this Russian project, we will expand to other autocracies with similar corporate rating projects. If you wish, see Support Us.