"AkzoNobel paid around €16 million in profit tax to the Kremlin since Ukraine invasion", 10 July 2024

The Russian branch of the Dutch paint group AkzoNobel has grown since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, even though the multinational publicly claims it has largely left Russia. In the past two years, AkzoNobel paid the equivalent of approximately 16 million euros in profit tax to the Kremlin, NRC reports based on the annual reports of AkzoNobel’s three Russian subsidiaries...

An AkzoNobel spokesperson told NRC that the Russian activities have indeed been halved, but “the volumes of the remaining parts have increased against expectations.” The spokesperson added that companies are legally obligated to pay taxes in the countries where they operate. “The alternative, if a company does not do this, is that it could be nationalized by Russia.”

According to NRC, data from Russian customs show that the AkzoNobel subsidiaries in the country could grow because AkzoNobel continued to supply large quantities of raw materials for paint and coatings from abroad. Until the end of last year, the multinational sent almost 2 million kilograms of these raw materials to Russia from branches in Sweden, Vietnam, and Turkey...