The French multinational Bonduelle, specializing in the marketing of vegetables, finds itself accused of supporting the Russian conflict in Ukraine following information that appeared on December 30 on Russian social networks.
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A post from “Ярцево LIVE” on VKontakt (the Russian Facebook), since deleted, features a photo of a basket filled with Bonduelle canned goods with a description implying that the French group actively supports the Russian side.
According to this same post, 10,000 of these baskets were delivered, along with a leaflet stating “We wish you all the best and a quick victory!”.
“Ярцево LIVE” also mentions Ekaterina Eliseeva, member of the Group’s Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer of Bonduelle EurAsia Markets, who wishes a “quick victory” to the Russian forces. This same Ekaterina Eliseeva went through the academy of the FSB, the secret service succeeding the Soviet KGB, to become a translator. However, it is not necessarily linked to the FSB yet.
The information was immediately taken up in Ukraine by personalities and media such as Obozrevatel. It is relayed in France by the independent journalist Stéphane Kenech, who points out the resemblance to the Russian uniform of the clothing worn by a man in the photo of the basket filled with Bonduelle canned goods.
Did Bonduelle deliver parcels to Russian soldiers?
On social networks, images are circulating. “Dear soldier, happy new year! We wish you the best and a quick victory! is written on a basket held by a person wearing a blue and white t-shirt. pic.twitter.com/7Ka0h1iNc1
— Stephane Kenech (@stephanekenech) https://twitter.com/stephanekenech/status/1609287993352757249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A press release from the group, published on December 31, denies “misleading information” as well as statements made to members of the company. Bonduelle indicates, however, that the company is still present in Russia, “with the sole objective of ensuring the population’s access to essential foodstuffs”.
Bonduelle still at work in Russia
The company is indeed maintaining its activities in the country, as it has announced since the beginning of the conflict, pointing to seasonal activities whose cessation “would have serious consequences both in the short and long terms”.
The group also considers its “responsibility to ensure people’s access to essential foodstuffs and to do everything possible not to contribute to food shortages”.
Bonduelle, however, claimed to dedicate all of the profits made by its sales in Russia during the period of conflict “to the future reconstruction of infrastructure and agricultural and food ecosystems damaged by the conflict in Ukraine”.
A “benevolence baskets” operation
According to him, the group makes food donations in conjunction with NGOs. Bonduelle has rightly indicated on its Russian Telegram account that it is taking part in the “Baskets of Benevolence” operation, an initiative of the Russian food bank delivering food baskets to the poorest.
However, as Stéphane Kenech points out, the head of the Russian district of Podolsk Dmitry Zharikov talks on his Telegram account about the “Baskets of Benevolence” initiative. as an initiative to “collect gifts for service members and their families”.
It is therefore possible that some of these baskets ended up in the hands of families of soldiers currently at the front. And all the more so since, as the Sunday newspaper at the start of the conflict, ethnic minorities and the poorest were overrepresented among Russian soldiers, potentially placing them in this category of the most deprived.
