The “Don’t Buy Russian!” boycott of Russian goods and services, in protest of the Russian military-led annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine, is starting to become popular across Ukraine.
While attempts to stop purchasing Russian natural gas are naïve at the moment, considering that the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom gives Ukraine 50 percent of its supply, Ukrainians are finding it much easier to say no to buying other goods.
The boycott campaign is starting to have its desired effect, although Russian troops remain in Ukraine and also across the border, ready to strike.
Within a month, there has been a 40 percent drop in demand for Russian retail products, according to the Ukrainian Association of Retailers. Its director general, Vadim Ignatov, said on April 8 that Ukrainians are refusing to buy Russian food, household chemicals, automotive products and clothing.
“The boycott has included goods that are produced in Russia by large international companies, but now local distributors are looking to replace them with European substitutes,” Ignatov said, adding that Ukraine has no Russian retail imports that cannot be replaced by goods from Europe or Asia.
The turnover of Ukraine’s food retailers in 2012 was $180 billion, of which Russian goods account for 5-7 percent, or over $1 billion, while Russia’s overall imports minus services to Ukraine were $23.2 billion in 2013. The vast majority of the items consisted of fuels, chemicals, heavy machinery, and metals
Russian supermarket goods occupy the “above average” and “premium” segments, mainly confections, pasta, alcoholic beverages, mineral water, tea, coffee, dairy products, fish, seafood, eggs and cosmetics.
“Don’t Buy Russian!” morphed from a boycott campaign of companies owned by members of the former ruling Party of Regions of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
The “Vidsich” – which means resistance – protest group was among the boycott organizers then and renewed the action after the Russian invasion of Crimea on Feb. 27.
The boycott campaign structure is a loose organization of 50 regular activists coordinating actions and more than 400 volunteers throughout the country, the boycott’s national coordinator, 27-year-old Kateryna Chepura, told the Kyiv Post.
The campaign is aggressive but peaceful.
“Our people will approach a vendor and ask if they sell Russian products. If they don’t know, we ask them to check, since we know,” she explained. “If they are selling them, then we ask them to replace with Ukrainian or other brands. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes a shop manager will chase us out or call the police.”
“The movement is directed less at Russian companies, since we can hardly affect them, but at Ukrainians, to get them to share in the protest against Russian occupation by showing economic patriotism,” Chepura said.
Most of the work involves the information sphere, however, to inform Ukrainians about Russian goods and services, where they are and how they are being disguised. Aside from social networks, the campaign puts up posters, leaflets and stickers. All actions are filmed and posted to the campaign’s YouTube channel.
Ukrainian programmers have even developed a special smart phone app with which a shopper can scan the barcode of an item to learn in which country it was produced. Moreover, the app knows how to distinguish goods ‘disguised’ by Russian companies via barcode change. It can be downloaded from Google Play.
Reaction of companies
The largest Ukrainian retailer Fozzy Group, which owns the supermarkets Silpo, Fora, and Fozzy, is equivocal about the boycott. Fozzy Group press service said that the group has a Russian brands unit, “but if such products stop selling we guarantee that we drop them from the range.”
Executive director of the European Business Association Anna Derevianko said on April 8 that even European companies are starting to feel the effects of this protest. “Several companies that are not Russian tell us they do not understand why their Russian-made products cannot be bought in Ukraine,” she said.
Google’s director in Ukraine and EBA board member Dmitry Sholomko adds that the boycott of Russian goods is being strongly felt in the informational technology sphere. “On the Internet such things are seen most clearly. For example, (the internet marketing developers) Ashmanov and partners has been renamed Olshansky and partners because Igor Ashmanov (of Russia) has had a bad attitude towards Ukraine. People simply stopped buying from the company,” he said.
The Ukrainian Association of Retail Suppliers joined the boycott on March 17. Director Oleksiy Doroshenko says, “in the short term such actions aimed at a specific company will lead to a sales drop of at least 5-10 percent. Serious economic consequences would be to cut the supply lines from Russia. For example, if just one company continues to stock product A, then suppliers will drop that product altogether.”
He argues that a 40-50 percent decline in sales of a particular product would lead it being dropped for economic reasons.
However, Chepura of Vidsich is not eager to overestimate the campaign’s impact, but “Don’t Buy Russian!” has its plans and ambitions.
“We are realistic,” she admitted. “We are going step by step. We started with Russian consumer goods in supermarkets and street kiosks, and now we are campaigning against Russian gasoline stations and banks. We plan to expand the boycott to restaurant chains and tourist agencies, and further if possible. Our goal is not just to get Russian products off the shelves, but to encourage carriers to reorient their supplies on Ukrainian or even European goods.”
How to boycott Russian goods
The easiest way to participate in the Don’t Buy Russian! boycott is to check the barcode of a store item. Barcodes starting with the number “4 6”came from Russia and those starting with “4 82” originated in Ukraine.
In order to avoid Russian-owned retail chains and service providers, the best way is to get ahold of a poster that lists them, such as the one found here: www.facebook.com/hashtag/boycottrussia
Alternatively, to show solidarity with the movement and to receive updates, join or “like” the associated social media pages: www.facebook.com/russiahandsoff, vk.com/stop_russia, www.facebook.com/StopRussia, www.youtube.com/user/vidsich
It should be noted that the list not only includes Russian brand names, but also a few international brands that manufacture goods in Russia that are then exported to Ukraine.
Kyiv Post business journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached at [email protected].
