The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added the American multinational fast food franchise Subway to the list of international sponsors of war.
According to the agency, more than 500 of the company's restaurants continue to operate in Russia, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. Subway actively advertises its activities through sanctioned Russian social media and delivers food through Yandex services, which cooperate with Russian government and law enforcement agencies.
The Russian Subway chain is now the third largest in Europe after the UK and Germany.
The company has been operating in Russia for more than 20 years, has created about 6,000 jobs, and has 550 restaurants in 122 cities. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Subway has not reported any cuts in its operations in Russia.
The peculiarity of Subway's business is that they operate under a franchisee system, meaning that there is a large network of legally separate entities that operate under the Subway brand, generate revenue and pay taxes. In Russia, Subway's franchise is owned by Subway Russia Service Company, headquartered in St. Petersburg.
Subway reported that all restaurants in Russia are independently owned and operated by local and master franchisees, so the restaurants remain open in Russia. The NAPC noted that this statement regarding the inability to influence its franchisees is untrue and factually misleading.
There have been no attempts by the company's management to condemn Russia's war against Ukraine.