Auchan, TotalEnergies, Leroy Merlin… The presence of these groups in Russia and their continued existence despite the war in Ukraine arouses the incomprehension and even the anger of some of their customers.

Amonth after the start of the war in Ukraine, pressure is intensifying on the French groups still present in Russia. Some have drawn the consequences. Kering or LVMH have decided to close their store temporarily. As for Renault, it has decided to suspend production at its factories. But other groups are still reluctant to leave the country. TotalEnergies, which has certainly decided to stop sourcing Russian oil and to invest in the country in the future, remains present in gas on the spot. Danone, Lactalis and the two giants of the galaxy Mulliez Auchan or Leroy Merlin have not yet indicated any intentions of leaving, while the third, Decathlon, finally highlighted supply problems to announce this Tuesday March 29 the suspension of its activities in Russia.

In public opinion, these strategies are the subject of much criticism. The oil company TotalEnergies, for example, criticized by part of the political class and many NGOs, is the subject of a petition signed against it and already bringing together nearly 75,000 signatories. A call for a boycott of its service stations has been launched. This is also the case of the Auchan group, targeted by the recriminations of President Volodymyr Zelensky or even his head of diplomacy. For Florian Silnicki, expert in crisis communication strategy and founder of LaFrenchCom, French groups would be wrong to neglect the reputational risk of such a crisis.