Beyond the smoke screen it’s business as usual in Russia for British American Tobacco

theguardian.com:

If you are a member of the board of British American Tobacco, courting popularity was probably never a top personal priority. Even so, the people overseeing a large and widely-held FTSE 100 company might still feel obliged to explain why, amid the broad boycott of Russia by multinationals, they think it’s fine to carry on business in the country roughly as normal.

A statement attributed by BAT to “a spokesperson” strained to create the impression of change, but any specific action was lost in a fog of corporate-speak. Suspending an unspecified sum of capital expenditure, “rationalising” marketing activities and “scaling our business activities appropriate to the current situation” commits the company to very little. BAT’s bottom line is this: “Our business in Russia continues to operate”.

In other words, a large factory in St Petersburg will keep producing Lucky Strikes, Kents, Rothmans and Dunhills, and a head office in Moscow, plus 75 regional offices, will continue to distribute. BAT accounts for about a quarter of the cigarette market in Russia.

Naturally, BAT included a line about its “duty of care” to 2,500 local employees. But other large companies selling consumer inessentials have concluded that their equivalent duties are best fulfilled by suspending operations while continuing to pay the workers. What they want to avoid is paying tax revenues to Putin’s regime. And remember, in the tobacco industry, excise revenues also apply.

The FTSE 100’s other fag merchant, Imperial Brands, with 1,000 local employees, has opted for a clear suspension of activities. Unlike BAT, Imperial is halting production in its Russian factory and is stopping all sales and marketing. It is not messing about with “rationalising” and