the Ukraine invasion, including General Motors, Shell and accounting firms PwC and KPMG. But many others, including fast-food restaurants and other bricks-and-mortar retailers, have not. Zablotskyy pointed to the ongoing Russian operations of McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Mondelez International, among other companies. Those firms did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Any effort to delist companies paying taxes in Russia could face logistical hurdles.
“The combination is both the pressure from a morality perspective, to avoid being seen as supporting [Russia], but also the sanctions make it really hard to do business,” Massaro said. Dean Baker, a liberal economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said U.S. lawmakers may be wary of setting the precedent of companies not paying the taxes they owe as a potential means of punishment.“I think that would be a really hard one to do,” Baker said. “It’s probably not the route — I’m guessing here, but there’s probably a lot of legal obstacles.”
But Maria Mezentseva, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said in an interview that she is backing the letter as the number of casualties in her country grows and the Russians have attacked children’s hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. “Our pain is enormous; we are losing people every day. … We’re facing a humanitarian catastrophe,” Mezentseva said. “This will obviously touch upon Russia and taxpayers and the Russian regime in general.”
At this rate of demands, its starting to feel like blackmail