Putin’s policies will turn Russia into a desert island economy

PUTIN’S expropriation of Danone and Carlsberg’s Russian assets could do his ambitions more harm than good.

“He is shooting himself in the foot because this will actually help the West push back Putin by damaging the Russian economy,” reasoned Mark Dixon, founder of the Moral Rating Agency (MRA).

“It will bring Russia closer to a desert island economy. The forced separation of democratic and undemocratic economies is critical for democracy to survive and prevail,” he declared, maintaining that the expropriated companies deserved their comeuppance.

“Danone and Carlsberg continued to profit from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and have therefore supported the Russian economy, which pays for that invasion,” he said.

“They have resisted our pressures to leave Russia and ironically have now been forced out by the very dictator they were propping up.”

Corporate watchdog MRA was created to remove Russia from Ukraine, using this momentum to help pro-democracy Russians get Putin and his regime out of the country.

The latest expropriations would actually help the West by damaging the Russian economy, the organisation said, describing it as a “positive” development.

“Putin’s behaviour is reprehensible, but he is unwittingly harming Russia,” Dixon added. “He has bitten the hand that feeds him and the more links that are cut between Russia and the West, the more the Russian economy will suffer.”

In consequence, Russia would have greater difficulty in financing its aggression and the Russian people would become more disillusioned with the regime as they became poorer.

It did not matter whether the Russian economy was disconnected by Western government sanctions, Western companies’ ethical voluntary exits, or by Putin expropriating the assets of unethical companies, Dixon said: “They all lead to Russia becoming disconnected from the global economy.”

Neither did the MRA have much compassion for Danone and Carlsberg.

“The expropriated companies deserve no sympathy. They continued to profit from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and have therefore also supported the Russian economy which pays for the invasion,” the MRA founder stated.

Having been punished by a global “bad actor” did not make them innocent victims, Dixon argued.

He also warned that Western companies still in Russia were in hot water.

“The risk of expropriation has risen,” he pointed out. “It is a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ and they will find it difficult to sell their businesses.”