The protest against the Ukraine war cannot be stopped completely, even in the flawless autocracy of Russia. Yesterday, for example, an editor hijacked the most important news program on Russian state television and stood behind the presenter during the live broadcast with an anti-war poster she had painted herself. It read: “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda, you are being lied to here. Russians against the war!”
Marina Ovsiannikova, an employee of Channel One, previously announced the action on social networks. Her father was Ukrainian and the war was a “crime” for which Vladimir Putin was responsible, she explained: “We are Russian citizens, we know how to think. We are smart. It is in our power to end this madness. Go to the protests, don’t be afraid of anything, they can’t lock us all up.”
It sounds as if she registered the imprisoned opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his criticism of the “mad tsar” very precisely. The activist Ovsiannikova, who was of course arrested immediately, is now a heroine of this war.
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Business isn’t everything when it comes to war or peace: The brothers Daniel and Andreas Sennheiser explain in an interview with the Handelsblatt why they are removing Russia from their business map for the time being.
- “We can’t do business there with a clear conscience at the moment,” explains Daniel: “This is primarily an ethical and moral decision.”
- “Corporate responsibility must not be limited to words, but must also include the willingness to accept loss,” says Andreas. “Peace is more important than business.”
The two explain why the family business is now concentrating on microphones and audio technology for professionals – and has sold the traditional headphone business for 200 million euros to the Swiss hearing aid specialist Sonova. A financially strong partner was needed for this volatile division, and Sonova wanted to rejuvenate its target group with a consumer brand.
Incidentally, says Daniel Sennheiser, headphones are “today just an interface to a large ecosystem, be it from Apple, Samsung, Google or Amazon”. Seen in this way, the whole of life in the digital age is an interface, it used to be a construction site.
(Photo: imago images/Marc John)
Deutsche Telekom of all people – with the federal government as the main shareholder – has a completely different view of the how-do-you-do-it-actually-feel-with-Russia? question than the Sennheiser brothers. The board of directors with CEO Tim Höttges remains loyal to the Russian location like Bonn to the Beethoven memorial, although the Kremlin regime has long been threatening western companies there with expropriations.
You have to know: The subsidiaries IT Solutions and Global Business Solutions have a total of 2000 employees in St. Petersburg and at two other locations, including many nerds and IT cracks. When we asked about the location, a spokesman only replied: “We are currently working on a solution for the issue you have described.”
The federal government official statement is as soft as a marshmallow: It emphasizes the “own responsibility” of the companies. In truth, the Russian projects are about Telekom’s core business – software for network planning and a smartphone app for private customers. And so the Höttges group in Russia continues to act like a hip tech company, even if civil liberty there has just been given life imprisonment.
The war in this country is increasingly leading to savings and failures. For example, the car manufacturer Volkswagen canceled orders from suppliers overnight, for example from the company KKT Frölich in the Harz Mountains, which produces plastic parts for transmissions. VW itself is shutting down the production of electric cars in Zwickau and Dresden, and the production lines at the main plant in Wolfsburg are also at a standstill. Important wiring harnesses can no longer be delivered from Ukraine.
Drivers will probably be more able to cope with the fact that live images of German autobahns can no longer be seen on the Internet. The Federal Ministry of Transport explains that the traffic cameras of the federally owned Autobahn GmbH are currently not available “due to the current security policy developments in Europe”.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild)
Putin’s comradeship also has the greatest impact on the federal budget. Although it will be decided on Wednesday in the Federal Cabinet, it is still a case for the blue waste paper bin on the same day. In addition to the deficit of 100 billion euros already planned for 2022, further large amounts are required. It has now been decided to purchase 35 US F-35 stealth jets as the successor to the aging Tornado aircraft, price per piece around 100 million euros. A supplementary budget is intended to give Olaf Scholz’s team time and air to deal with the costs of the war, analyzes our title report.
The question of how consumers tormented by Putinism can be relieved has triggered a veritable surge of creativity in the political suggestion system. Treasurer Christian Lindner (FDP) is the center of attention with the idea of a tank discount of 20 cents per liter, which is to be settled in bulk via the billing of the mineral oil industry. According to Lindner, it is important to him “that quick help can be felt from commuters and families to tradespeople”.
The Prime Ministers Stephan Weil (Lower Saxony) and Markus Söder (Bavaria), on the other hand, want to lower the VAT for petrol, and a renewed increase in the commuter allowance as well as an energy allowance and a heating cost subsidy are under discussion. Here is a coalition of caregivers at the bazaar of ideas with discount cards of all kinds. Or as store manager Robert Habeck puts it: “Everyone now says a little bit about what makes sense to them.”
And then there’s Robert “Bob” Iger, 71, who headed Disney for 15 years, where he produced fantasy films and, among other things, bought the animation studio Pixar. Now the “best ager” wants to shape the future of the trade himself. Iger invests a lot of money in the Los Angeles company Genies and joins the board there. A separate app should enable Hinz and Kunz to create their desired 3D versions of themselves (“avatars”) and thus make it big on social media and in the metaverse.
Iger raves about “Internet 3.0” with the avatars of users running around everywhere as the main actors. The ex-Disney boss calls it “democratization”, critics only see a new playground for old giants like Facebook. The famous Peter Ustinov always had a very sober view of future flurries: “There has always been science fiction – the weather forecast on TV.”
I wish you a sunny day with a tailwind for your projects.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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