NACP adds AliExpress owner to list of international war sponsors
The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added the Chinese company Alibaba Group (owner of AliExpress) to the list of international sponsors of the war – the company still continues to operate in Russia, providing its own platforms for selling goods made of copper taken from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
In 2023, the company announced a restructuring plan to divide Alibaba Group into 6 groups: Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Business Group (Taobao, Tmall, Taobao Deals, Taocaica\i, 1688.com), Local Services Group (Amap, Ele.me), Global Digital Business Group (Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol, Daraz, Alibaba.com), Cainiao Smart Logistics, Digital Media and Entertainment Group (Youku, Alibaba Pictures).
According to the NACP, the most popular online commerce platform in Russia is AliExpress, which is operated by the Russian subsidiary of the Alibaba group, Alibaba.COM (RU) LLC. Alibaba.COM (RU) LLC is owned by Aliexpress Russia Holding Private Ltd. registered in Singapore.
A year and a half after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company continues to do business in the aggressor country, providing an international platform for the sale of foreign goods. The profit of Alibaba.COM (RU) LLC in 2022 amounted to 16.3 billion rubles (about $160 million).
In April 2023, Reuters revealed that the Chinese company Quzhou Nova had purchased at least 3,220 tons of copper alloy for a total of $7.4 million from the Russian-controlled Debaltseve Metallurgical Engineering Plant between October 8, 2022, and March 24, 2023. According to the customs, the copper alloy was shipped from the plant through the port of Novorossiysk. The company uses the copper taken from the occupied territories to produce goods that it sells on Alibaba’s platforms.
In addition, Alibaba’s platforms censor Ukrainian content related to the war: in March 2022, a Ukrainian streamer with more than 268,000 followers on AliExpress was blocked for a post. The NACP claims that pro-Russian posts are not removed in this way.
“All the above facts may indicate that the company supports Russian aggression not only financially by paying taxes, but also ideologically,” the NACP website says.
As has been explained many times before, this “war sponsors” mechanism is one of the NACP’s tools that are not directly legally binding, but help to create the necessary reputational pressure on foreign companies until they completely stop doing business with the Russian state sponsor of terrorism. As of August 17, the NACP’s list of international sponsors of the war includes 33 companies (technically, Alibaba has not yet been added), including Raiffeisen Bank, Metro, and Auchan, which continue to operate in Ukraine.
