MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added the US-based fast food restaurant chain Subway, to the list of "war sponsors," the agency’s press service reported.
"NACP has added the American Subway to the list of international sponsors of the war," according to the agency’s statement on its telegram channel.
"Currently, the Subway company actively continues to operate [in the Russian Federation] and has not reported any reduction in the country where it has 550 restaurants," the statement says.
As the agency notes, after the problems emerge in May 2022 with the transfer of payments from Russia to the franchisor, legal mechanisms were used that allowed banks to resume processing payments, and Subway began to "receive royalties from Russian franchisees again."
The agency also notes that Subway advertises its activities in Russia through the social networks VK and Odnoklassniki, owned by the sanctioned legal entity VK Company LLC, and also delivers food through the Yandex.Food service, controlled by the Yandex group of companies, which cooperate with government and law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.
"That means that Subway, represented by the Russian companies Subway Russia Service Company LLC, Nevsky 20 LLC, Subway Russia Real Estate Company LLC, Subway Russia Franchise Advertising Fund LLC, Subway Russia Development Company, continues to actively support Russian economy," the report says.
The fast food chain Subway was founded in 1965 in the USA and operates under a franchise system. The Russian chain is the third largest in the number of outlets in Europe after the UK and Germany, and includes 550 restaurants in 122 cities. It has been working in Russia for more than 20 years, creating about 6,000 jobs. Its head office is located in St. Petersburg. One of the seven international Subway training centers operating in the world is also located in St. Petersburg.
NACP list
NACP puts individuals and companies cooperating with Russia on its "war sponsors" list.
According to information published on the agency’s website, the main purpose of the sanctions lists is to inform the governments of Ukraine’s partner countries and citizens about the sanctions that were already imposed and to call for an expansion of the sanctions lists.
The "war sponsors" list includes the largest international companies, such as the American Procter & Gamble, the French chains Leroy Merlin and Auchan, the Mars and PepsiCo corporations, the American Philip Morris and the Japanese Japan Tobacco, as well as the Chinese group Alibaba, which owns the online trading platform Aliexpress, and the three largest Chinese oil and gas companies CNOOC Group, Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum Corporation.