Richard Branson leads group of businessmen in protest letter over Ukraine

A letter signed by business tycoon Richard Branson as well as Russian, Ukrainian and western businessmen has pointed to unease in the business community over the damage being caused to East-West relations by Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

Organised by Mr Branson, who was among its 16 signatories, the open letter calls on the governments of the west, Russia and Ukraine “to compromise and find a peaceful solution to the current conflict” and “to work together to ensure we don’t regress into the Cold War misery of the past.”

Other signatories included the chief executive of Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever, Paul Polman, and leading Ukrainian industrialist Viktor Pinchuk.

But it is the letter’s Russian signatories who have perhaps made the bravest statement.

They are Dennis Ludkovsky, chief executive of Svyaznoy, one of Russia’s largest mobile phone retailers; Maxim Ivanov, founder of retailer Foodline Group; Arkady Novikov, founder of several fashionable restaurants; Sergei Petrov, founder of Rolf Group, a leading car dealer, and business lobbyist Igor Yurgens.

Branson has said in interviews that he approached nearly 100 Russian business people.

Only five signed the letter. The unwillingness of others to join them pointed to the extreme reluctance of Russian businessmen to comment publicly on all political issues - especially sensitive ones that are close to the heart of President Vladimir Putin.

But the fact that some signed the letter nonetheless also illustrates the festering disquiet over a crisis that is already inflicting huge damage on Russia’s economy because of Western sanctions imposed over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and alleged support - denied by Moscow - of pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine.

“I don’t think that I can speak on behalf of the whole Russian business community,” said Mr Yurgens, one of the Russian signatories.

“But the people whom I know are very concerned.”

Notably absent from the letter were any representatives of Russia’s corporate giants in the state-dominated banking and energy sectors - even though they in particular have been at the sharp end of Western sanctions.

Reuters