INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Earlier this week, pharmaceutical giant Johnson - Johnson joined the growing numbers of Western firms to announce a new scaling back of
operations in Russia.Having already suspended new investments, pulled advertising and halted enrolment in medical trials there at the
beginning of March, the company had drawn scorn for not going far enough from various high-profile campaigns agitating for a full-scale
boycott of Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.In response, Johnson - Johnson said it would halt the supply of its non-essential
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale School of Management who has led a campaign calling for firms to withdraw from the Russian market,
such as Johnson - Johnson and Nestle have discovered, a nuanced message of a partial withdrawal from the Russian market on humanitarian
things about wanting to continue to provide humanitarian medical support for innocent people in Russia, but they actually just want to
article, pointing instead to previous company statements about their decisions to scale back operations in Russia and provide financial and
medical support to Ukrainian causes.Companies have stressed that Russia is a small part of their global footprint
Studies estimate that up to 70% of Russian drugs are either directly imported to or manufactured in Russia by Western companies
have positioned their scaling back as a suspension or halt to operations, rather than a permanent withdrawal
Some commentators see this as an attempt to avoid a blowback from the Russian authorities, but there are concerns within the boycott
movement that businesses could be keeping their options open for a return to the Russian market in the future, once the public outcry dies
down.Levin said that would be a dangerous move for his industry and warned his larger peers against restarting sales of non-essential
If companies are willing to betray their values and go back into a country which has devastated another country and slaughtered so many
people, then shareholders have to ask the question: is the leadership of that company living up to the values that the board and
