The glass has cracked: NACP adds Turkish glass manufacturer Şişecam Group to the list of international sponsors of war

07.09.2023

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Turkey's Şişecam Group to the list of international sponsors of the war. The company continues to do business with Russia and remains Russia's largest exporter in its industry. The company's main areas of activity are glass and chemical production. It ranks second in the world in terms of glassware production, fifth among glass container and sheet glass producers, and is a global leader in soda ash and chromium-based chemicals. Şişecam's revenue in 2022 increased to USD 3.6 billion. The company’ s net profit increased to USD 740 million. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, Şişecam Flat Glass has been producing architectural, construction, and automotive glass in Russia at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan. This is also where the "Shakhtys" used by the Russians to attack Ukraine on a regular basis are produced. In Russia, Şişecam's consolidated production volumes of sheet glass, glass containers, and glassware exceed 1.5 million tons per year, and total investments exceed USD 1.25 billion. The company employs 3,414 people at its plants in Russia, thereby creating jobs and supporting the economy of the terrorist state. In particular, the subsidiaries of Şişecam Group, which produce sheet glass, glassware, and glass containers, paid taxes to the Russian Federation in 2022 for more than USD 11.2 million. Given that the war is very expensive for Russia and the frozen assets and imposed sanctions continue to cause pressure on the aggressor's economy, Russia is counting on additional funds for its budget, in particular through the payment of taxes by such companies. It is also worth mentioning that Russian laws require employers to cooperate with the authorities in the mobilization campaign, for example, by providing personal data of employees to the military enlistment office. Although a foreign company may claim that the authorities did not ask it to do so, the longer the company stays in Russia, the harder it will be to explain that it managed to circumvent the requirements of these laws. We should also note that the company's management has not made any attempts to condemn Russia's war against Ukraine. We would like to remind you that the NACP is the body responsible for the compliance system in the private sector. During compliance procedures, counterparties are subject to integrity checks, including socially responsible business conduct in accordance with OECD standards. The list of “International War Sponsors” on the “War and Sanctions” portal is a powerful reputational tool for achieving the integrity of supply chains in the international dimension, the exit of international business from Russia, thus reducing the financial and technological ability of the terrorist country to kill Ukrainians. One of the “leverages” of the platform is cooperation with the World-Check database, which is used by banks and insurance companies for risk assessment. That is why for global companies, the consequences of being on the list become worse than continuing to do business with the aggressor country.