Bacardi Added to Ukrainian Blacklist for Continuing Business With Russia

Bar waiters prepare a cocktail based on the Russian premium Vodka Eristoff during its launch by Bacardi Martini India Limited in Bangalore on May 30, 2007. Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP via Getty Images

Bacardi Ltd. was added to the Ukrainian government’s blacklist for continuing to do business in Russia.

Kyiv’s national anti-corruption agency added Bacardi to its list of so-called international war sponsors on Aug. 10, accusing the Bermuda-based liquor company of maintaining business relations and paying taxes in Russia.

Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) also accused the firm of looking for new employees in Russia while at war with Kyiv.

Bacardi is the world’s largest private international liquor company, with more than 200 brands, sold in more than 170 countries. Its labels include its namesake rum, as well as Bombay Sapphire gin, Cazadores tequila, Grey Goose vodka, William Lawson’s scotch, and Angel’s Envy bourbon.

The designation as an international war sponsor doesn’t carry legal repercussions such as a freeze on assets or a travel ban but is intended to shame and pressure major corporations to stop doing business with Russia.

The list currently includes 32 companies, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and the United Arab Emirates’ DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators.

Since February 2022, more than 1,000 companies announced that they would voluntarily curtail operations in Russia, according to a database from Yale University.

Backtracking on Promise

Bacardi’s addition to Ukraine’s blacklist came three days after The Wall Street Journal reported how the company quietly ignored its early promise to halt exports to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

“After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bacardi announced that it would stop exporting to Russia and stop investing in advertising, but this part later disappeared from the company’s official statement,” the NACP said in a statement.

“Therefore, the company continued to supply its products to the Russian Federation for millions of dollars and to look for new employees by publishing job advertisements.”

The NACP accused Bacardi of paying more than $12 million in income taxes to Russia and claimed that Bacardi Rus, its Russian division, “imported goods worth $169 million during the year of war with Ukraine.”

“Bacardi Limited continues to pay significant taxes to the budget of Russia, support its economy and sponsors aggression against Ukraine,” Kyiv’s anti-corruption agency said.

The agency cited published data from the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, which showed Bacardi Rus’s earnings rising by 8.5 percent to $328 billion last year.

The firm also posted net profit of $4.73 billion, which was 206.5 percent more than it earned in 2021.

Rivals such as Pernod Ricard, the distributor of Havana Club rum, have exited the Russian market since the invasion of Ukraine.

Representatives of Bacardi didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.