As hundreds of large American companies leave Russia for their invasion UkraineKoch Industries remains.
The industrial conglomerate, the second largest privately owned business in the United States, with annual revenues of $ 115 billion, is among them. defying public pressure and continue to operate manufacturing plants and sell products throughout Russia, while maintaining the relentless attack of this nation on Ukrainian cities.
Koch, based in Wichita, Kansas, has several lines of business in Russia and is among the nearly 40 companies described as “engaging” in refusing to slow down or stop business in that nation, according to a count compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and colleagues. research team.
Koch’s Russian subsidiaries include Guardian Industries, a manufacturer of industrial glass and other products in Auburn Hills, Michigan that operates two plants in Russia, one near its border with Ukraine, according to Popular Information, a left-wing newsletter by Judd Legum.
Another Koch subsidiary, Molex, offers electronic components through a network of third-party distributors in Russia, while a third, Koch Engineered Solutions, has a sales office in Moscow.
Meanwhile, political groups backed by Charles Koch, the right-wing billionaire who runs Koch Industries, are making a public case against the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia, according to Popular Information.
Stand Together, a non-profit organization founded by Charles Koch, “supports specific sanctions against Russia in response to its immoral invasion of Ukraine. We also believe that sanctions are a legitimate tool of the status quo. Broad-based economic sanctions rarely achieve the desired political results. “, Dan Caldwell, the group’s vice president of foreign policy, he tweeted Monday.
Caldwell in the past suggested that the US remain neutral in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
He would probably declare neutrality and reject pressure to involve the United States in a European war that did not interest us, as he did in 1793: https://t.co/Oc7gA19gxD
– Dan Caldwell (@dandcaldwell) March 13, 2022
A similar message comes from Will Ruger, chairman of another group backed by Charles Koch, the American Institute for Economic Research or AIER, according to the Popular Information report. “The United States can and should do very little for Ukraine,” Ruger said in a March 2 podcast in Reason Magazine, a libertarian publication with the backing of Charles Koch. “Ukraine just doesn’t care about the security of the United States or our prosperity.”
Encouraging this vision, Ruger too shared on social media a Reason video titled “Why Russian sanctions will fail.”
Another group backed by Charles Koch, Concerned Veterans for America, is promoting a point of view against sanctions, in a letter of petition calling for “moderation while America responds to the immoral invasion of Ukraine by Russia … We have to avoid actions that could further aggravate the situation. or have detrimental repercussions for American prosperity. “
Koch Industries did not respond to CBS MoneyWatch feedback requests.
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