Beijing and the inconvenient truth about the Russian business pull-out
This week an increasing number of prominent businesses have announced partial or full halts to business operations in Russia.
The businesses include McDonald's, Apple, Netflix, Shell, Visa, MasterCard and Disney among others. This self-restraint is meant to put pressure on Russia and its very unpopular invasion of Ukraine by inflicting economic damage on Russia, President Vladimir Putin and his supporters.
The results have been notable. The economic fallout is causing Russia's economy to contract and it's a currency to devalue. Systematically, Russia is being cut off from the outside world.
Whether these business pull-outs, alongside the removal of numerous Russian banks from the SWIFT system, the banning of Russian airlines flying over Europe, the confiscation of oligarchs’ so-called s...