Auchan, a French supermarket chain, has become one of the Western companies that have continued their activities in Russia, despite the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
While the company’s management said it was focused on providing “basic food needs,” a new investigation by The Insider, Le Monde and Bellingcat alleges that Russian daughter Ashanu has been supplying goods to the Russian military in the occupied territories since the beginning of the invasion.
It is noted that the supply to the military was positioned as “humanitarian aid” and consisted of both goods from the “Auchan” warehouses and goods collected by volunteers on the territory of the Auchan stores in different regions of the country.
In some regions, deliveries were organized in direct cooperation with local authorities.
Thus, the investigators refer to an email that on March 15, 2022, the controller of the Auchan-St. Petersburg department, Natalya Zeltser, sent to about 20 employees in St. Petersburg.
The letter gives instructions on collecting “donations for humanitarian aid.” It is accompanied by a list in the form of a table, with a list of necessary things, including:
- cigarettes;
- wool socks size 43 or 44;
- gas stove canisters;
- canned pork stew;
- axes;
- nails, etc.
It is easy to see that all these goods are intended for men (say, the minimum size of socks in the list is 25th, which corresponds to the 40th shoe size), there are cigarettes (which are never supplied as humanitarian aid at all), lighters, razors, but there is nothing for women and children, The Insider notes.
It is noted that the number of certain goods – 1 thousand tubes of toothpaste and 500 lighters – indicates that there were many recipients and this would be enough for one or two battalions. The total cost of this March shipment of “aid” was 2 million rubles. They were instructed to collect from five outlets and transported to the sixth store, located near the historic center of the city.
Auchan gave everything away for free, – said a source of investigators among the Auchan employees.
Subsequently, this humanitarian aid was formalized as a purchase by ten legal entities. These companies are interconnected – they all serve the St. Petersburg Passazhiravtotrans, owned by the city Committee for Transport.
The journalists contacted these legal entities, and some of them did not hide the fact that the goods were sent to the Russian military. However, some began to invent a “legend”.
For example, Tatyana Nekrasova, director of Venta LLC, stated that she allegedly purchased goods for employees of her warehouse. In particular, she claimed that her company with seven employees needed 700 lighters to “fire the stove” in the event of “Ukrainian sabotage and power outages.”
Auchan involved not only his St. Petersburg stores in deliveries for the occupying troops. This is evidenced by the fact that the supply was coordinated with the Moscow office, and the fact that in other regions the collection of assistance was also seen on the territory of shopping centers owned by Auchan, the newspaper notes. – So, for example, in Samara, Rybinsk and Vladimir, collection points for “humanitarian aid for Donbass” were located on the territories of Auchan stores.
Journalists note that, according to international law, only assistance to civilians is considered humanitarian aid during international conflicts – support from one of the warring parties can bring Auchan under sanctions and lead to the company leaving the Russian market (Auchan has 230 stores in Russia ).
In addition, according to the sources of the investigators, Auchan helped the authorities to recruit mobilized from their employees – the company collected and transferred data about its employees to the military registration and enlistment offices (moreover, data on military tickets from employees began to be collected back in January 2022), and after the announcement mobilization in Russia, employees were handed summons right at the workplace.
Journalists note that not only Auchan, but also Leroy Merlin, belonging to the same holding, could also supply goods to the occupied territories. In particular, a video from Mariupol published in December shows members of the Young Guard of United Russia unloading identical pallets bearing the Leroy Merlin logo.
Source: The Insider, Le Monde
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.