If you are a member of the board of British American Tobacco, courting popularity was probably never a top personal priority. Even so, the people overseeing a large and widely held FTSE 100 company may still feel obliged to explain why, amid the broad boycott of Russia by multinationals, they think it’s fine to carry on business in the country roughly as normal.
A statement attributed by BAT to “a spokesperson” strained to create the impression of change, but any specific action was lost in a fog of corporate-speak. Suspending an unspecified sum of capital expenditure, “rationalising” marketing activities and “scaling our business activities appropriate to the current situation” commits the company to very little. BAT’s bottom line is this: “Our business in Russia continues to operate.”
