Money Does Stink: Michael Podolsky's Fight Against Corporate Complicity in Russia

Michael Podolsky, head of the consumer advocacy website PissedConsumer.com, received a life-changing phone call on February 24, 2022. He and his family were on a skiing vacation in Austria when he received a call from one of his employees in Ukraine.

“Michael,” she said, “war has started. Bombs are falling in Kharkiv.” Reflecting on that moment, Podolsky recalls, “I went into war mode. I wanted to help in any way I could.”

He had been scheduled to fly to Ukraine in a few days, but all commercial flights were canceled. “I couldn’t just sit and watch Ukraine being demolished,” he remembers. He decided to help by purchasing eight large boxes of supplies, including hemostatic powder to stop bleeding and bulletproof vests. He delivered these to colleagues at the Poland-Ukraine border, and they were quickly transported to the front lines.

But for Podolsky, that wasn’t enough. As the founder of a website with six to nine million monthly visits, he realized he could support Ukraine on a larger scale. While he admired the companies that immediately ceased operations in Russia, he was dismayed to learn that many Western companies continued doing business there. He understood that these companies pay taxes in Russia, indirectly funding the war against Ukraine.

“When companies and their consumers continue to do business in Russia, they undermine a core tenet of the United Nations: that one country cannot invade another,” he says. “This principle is essential for peace; it’s the foundation, and Russia was blatantly ignoring it.”

Podolsky wonders how many Western consumers would stop buying products if they knew their parent companies were still operating in Russia. Leveraging his website’s extensive reach, he conducted an online survey in July 2024 with 1,326 participants from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

He asked if respondents would stop buying products like Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers if they knew the parent company, Mondelez International, was still active in Russia. The findings were telling:

• 79.8% of respondents were unaware that Mondelez International is the parent company of Oreo, Nabisco, Ritz Crackers, Honey Maid, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

• 89.4% didn’t know Mondelez was still doing business in Russia and paying corporate taxes there.

• 77.5% said they would stop buying Mondelez products to pressure the company to leave the Russian market.

• For 71.2%, it was highly important that Mondelez take a stand against human rights violations by exiting the Russian market.

A 2024 PissedConsumer survey of over 1,500 American consumers found that 86.3% do not support companies that continue operations in Russia despite the war and sanctions, up from 77.3% in 2022. Similarly, 88% said they would not purchase products from brands operating in Russia, compared to 79.7% in the initial 2022 poll.

Although Podolsky is appalled by companies that maintain economic ties with Russia, he admires the oil companies that, despite having financial reasons to stay, chose to leave and took significant financial hits. “They made a principled decision,” he says.

Podolsky expresses disdain for companies that continue doing business in Russia. He shares a story about the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who, when criticized for raising funds by taxing public urinals, famously held up a silver coin and declared, “Money doesn’t stink.” To Vespasian, money was neutral, no matter its source.

Podolsky believes Vespasian was wrong. “When money is blood money—when it comes from supporting a regime that inflicts unimaginable suffering—it truly does stink.”