[cbozeman]

I don't think this is the reasoning at all.

I think trying to conduct transactions in a heavily sanctioned nation that's also fighting a war of aggression against a neighbor, and incurring heavy losses, is causing a headache for the bean counters, and it has finally become more trouble than it's worth, financially.

These enormous multinational behemoths - as an entity - don't give two shits about the people dying in Ukraine, Russian soldiers dying, or the Russian people enduring hardships. They care about profit.

It's no different than the stance on civil rights, or LGBQT+, or any other issue. If you look historically, these companies only bother to "do the right thing" once it has the potential of threatening profits. It may sound cynical, but the historical record is pretty solid.

[whywhywhywhy]

Always disgusted me how two faced the vocal companies like Disney and Apple were about LGBTQ+ rights in the US yet all too happy to throw the same community under the bus when Russian, Chinese and UAE profits were on the table.

They're only interested in the community as a PR tool, not the actual lives of the people, it's gross.

[adventured]

The parent did not say that was the reason, they said McDonald's leaving has symbolic meaning - which it absolutely does in a huge way.

> These enormous multinational behemoths - as an entity - don't give two shits about the people dying in Ukraine, Russian soldiers dying, or the Russian people enduring hardships. They care about profit.

Of course they do care about the context, very obviously, precisely because it can affect their profits. Which is why so many companies rapidly bandied together and left Russia, even when they legally didn't have to. The stigma of being associated with Russia is brand damaging, which is ultimately profit damaging (and Russia isn't worth enough as a market for most corporate giants to warrant taking that brand hit). That's the clear corporate equation.

[chongli]

Thank you. Far too often people will jump in and cry "all corporations only care about profits!" which is about as interesting a statement as "all programming languages are Turing-equivalent".

[jquery]

All international conglomerates are amoral. Some are more amoral than others.

[m000]

Any big organization is amoral. This includes countries.