Europe couldn’t resist US pressure on anti-Russian sanctions and now bears all of them, says L’Occitane director
The sanctions Washington and Brussels have imposed on Russia for its military effort in Ukraine have hit Europe much harder than Russia, Reinold Geiger, chief executive of L’Occitane Group – a major luxury body retailer , hair, face and home – said in a guest article for Le Figaro on Wednesday.
The ill-conceived restrictions imposed by the United States have ended years of hard work by European companies while having little or no effect on the course of the conflict in Ukraine, he said. “How not to be frustrated when years of work are called into question by unfair decisions overnight? Geiger, who saw his company sell all of its assets in Russia, wondered.
Faced with political pressure, European companies are leaving Russia, giving way to their Russian and Asian competitors while Moscow itself turns to its Asian partners like New Delhi and Beijing to replace the missing income from trade with the West. , said the director of the L’Occitane group.
Read more
Europe’s largest automaker leaves Russia – media
He believes that the current situation is the result of the surrender of Europe to American demands. Europe is still dependent on America, especially in the field of defence, argued the contractor, adding that the French and British nuclear arsenals alone could not constitute an effective deterrent against Russia. The existing imbalance has affected the decisions of the G7, NATO and the EU, he added.
The United States has declared itself “censor” of the industrial world, said Geiger, adding that the American University of Yale had compiled a list of “bad” companies that did not leave Russia as a result of its military operation. It was then posted on social media.
Geiger’s own company was then the victim of a massive shaming campaign over his initial decision to stay, he revealed. “In less than an hour, L’Occitane had to face several hundred attacks and as many boycott threats to force it to leave Russia. said the director, adding that the company had to do it “because the vindictiveness of Internet users was becoming unbearable and risked jeopardizing its activities in other regions of the world.”
Read more
The EU is heading towards a “war economy” – Orban
Meanwhile, in Germany, the EU’s sanctions policy against Russia has met with resistance from a number of small business associations, which oppose sanctions and instead advocate diplomacy. A wave of outrage among German craftsmen’s associations was sparked by their federal leader, Hans Peter Wollseifer, backing Germany’s sanctions policy in a conversation with the dpa news agency earlier in July.
Some associations of craftsmen, especially in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, called Wollseifer’s words “incomprehensible and irresponsible”. The positions of the members of the association are “significantly more differentiated” the associations said, adding that the sanctions policy “meets widespread resistance” by craftsmen, as the Berliner Zeitung reports.
An open letter sent by one of these associations in mid-June stated that the sanctions had not affected Russia’s military effort but had “at the same time massively hit the local economy and population.” Now the associations are asking Wollseifer to reconsider his declaration and the German government is committing “diplomatic efforts” at “reach a peaceful solution” to the conflict instead of just sending arms to kyiv.
rt Gt
Not all news on the site expresses the point of view of the site, but we transmit this news automatically and translate it through programmatic technology on the site and not from a human editor.
