Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for an international trade embargo. On Monday March 7th, speaking in a video address, Zelensky said:
“If the invasion continues and Russia has not abandoned its plans against Ukraine, then a new sanctions package is needed…”
This includes
“a boycott of Russian exports, in particular the rejection of oil and oil products from Russia.”
He also said that Russia should also not receive goods and services from abroad “if [Russia] doesn’t want to abide by civilised rules.”
As a result of the country-wide boycott call, businesses and retailers have responded with a historically unprecedented speed. Netflix, Spotify and Apple have suspended services in Russia entirely. VW, Mercedes, Ikea, Estee Lauder, H&M, Nike, and Asos were also listed on March 2nd as having taken action in this issue.
Since then around 200 other companies have joined a list being maintained on Wikipedia.
McDonalds and Coca-Cola joined the list of companies suspending operations in Russia, following boycott calls after they initially failed to speak out.
Around 30 international sporting federations have also joined the boycott including FIFA, football's global governing body, which has announced that it was suspending all Russian teams from international competition until further notice.
In addition, a wide range of education, science and research collaborations with Russian institutions have been paused or otherwise affected. Some finance firms have also begun a process of divestment.
On March 9th a new website boycottrussia.info was launched to list companies taking action and those not. It also has a list of advertisers on Russian state TV.
On March 10th a new website was launched listing full details of the 100 financial institutions most heavily entangled in Russian oil and gas at Putin100.org
At the time of writing, the number of companies criticised for not withdrawing was running at around 20 major names.