The Swiss food processing giant Nestlé has admitted continuing scaled-down business operations in Russia after criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French news agency AFP and news portal RFI report.
On Saturday, March 19, Zelenskyy addressed a protest outside the Swiss parliament in Berne. The Ukrainian President urged Swiss companies to stop doing business in Russia and condemned firms that carried on regardless despite the siege of Mariupol and pointed out Nestlé – the world’s largest food processing conglomerate – for its operations in Russia.
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The company’s spokeswoman argued to AFP that many of the firm’s activities in Russia had been wound down, following the Vladimir Putin-ordered invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on February 24.
«We have greatly reduced our activities in Russia. We have suspended all imports and exports, except for vital products. We have stopped all our investments there and have ceased all our advertising activities,» the spokeswoman explained to AFP, which reports that baby food and cereals have been exempt in the company’s March 11 suspension of the delivery of certain products to Russia.