Philip Morris International continues to sponsor the war in Ukraine, make excessive profits and finance a terrorist country. This is quite understandable, as the company has the most favorable conditions for conducting and developing its business in Russia thanks to its ties with the authorities. This opinion was expressed by Dmytro Kupyra, executive director of the Life NGO, in an interview with investigative journalist Yevhen Plinsky.
“And this is not surprising, because Philip Morris International is closely connected with the ruling elite of the Russian Federation. The fact is that the current Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, former Chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, was a member of the Board of Directors of Philip Morris Russia for about 10 years,” notes Dmitry Kupira. In this story, Igor Kesayev is the Russian government’s “watchdog” for the tobacco market, which has a huge share in Russia. He is responsible for ensuring that the “right” money is distributed, he is actually responsible for ensuring that the “right money” from the tobacco business is sent to the “right” place, just like Sergey Naryshkin. After all, he was not just the chairman of Philip Morris. He wasn’t just sitting there for nothing. He sat on behalf of the Russian authorities and made sure that the ‘right’ money was sent to the ‘right place’ and that the fate of the authorities was taken into account.”
Yevgeny Plinsky also noted that after working at Philip Morris, Naryshkin was hired not just anywhere, but in the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, and his career began there. He was already the head of the presidential administration, and then he joined the foreign intelligence service, but his last job in commercial structures was working for Philip Morris.
Dmytro Kupyra emphasized that Naryshkin was delegated to Philip Morris by the authorities: “He ‘worked’ there for 10 years and was sent back. We saw that he had gained corporate experience, could probably do something, and took him back to the administration.”
“There was a great Routers investigation titled ‘Russian arms magnate supplying weapons to Russian army is linked to Philip Morris’ – it was an investigation about Kesayev and Megapolis, how they are connected, and the fact that Kesayev was authorized on the other hand to oversee the tobacco market,” adds investigator Plinsky.
Dmytro Kupyra, in turn, emphasized that the indisputable proof of Kesayev’s connection with the Russian authorities is the fact that he is the owner of a weapons production plant in Russia. And this can only be a person directly connected with the Russian authorities, with the Russian president and those close to him. Kesaev is the owner of the Megapolis distribution company.
Megapolis is a Ukrainian distribution company that has played a key role in the country’s tobacco market for many years. The activities of Megapolis and other pro-Russian companies have led to an increase in the share of Russian tobacco brands in the Ukrainian market to 80%.
Today, tobacco corporations play a crucial role in financing the war, as they pay taxes to the budget of the aggressor country, and the tobacco monopoly only facilitates this.
The Kyiv School of Economics has estimated that the money Philip Morris International earned for Russia in 2022 could buy 4,900 Kalibr missiles, 78 fifth-generation Su-57 fighters, or 1,089 T-90 tanks.