B4Ukraine applauds Match Group’s decision to withdraw from the Russian market by the end of June, 2023. The Dallas-based American Internet and technology company owns and operates the largest global portfolio of popular online dating services including Tinder, Match.com, and PlentyOfFish, among a total of more than 45 global dating companies. It places Match on the list of the first few companies to depart from Russia due to concerns over human rights violations.
“We are pleased that Tinder owner Match Group has rightly recognized the threat to human rights in Ukraine posed by direct or indirect financial support to Putin’s regime and committed to withdrawing from the Russian market,” said Eleanor Nichol, executive director of B4Ukraine. “We hope that other companies who remain in Russia and with whom we engage do the right thing, and stop funding the senseless war against Ukraine.”
While American taxpayers continue to support Ukraine, providing billions of dollars in humanitarian and military assistance, there are still more than 300 US companies that have chosen to continue doing business with the Putin regime — paying taxes and indirectly supporting Russia’s war. “The continued presence of well-known international and American brands normalizes in the eyes of Russian citizens the acts of brutal aggression committed by the Russian state against ordinary Ukrainians. This is abhorrent given more than 80,000 war crimes, tens of thousands of casualties and regular missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and towns,” stated Nataliya Popovych, member of the B4Ukraine Steering Committee.
B4Ukraine demands an end to all US corporate complicity in Russian aggression and crimes against humanity in Ukraine and is calling on the Biden Administration to immediately issue an advisory to inform individuals, businesses, financial institutions, and other persons — including investors, consultants, and research service providers — of the heightened risks associated with doing business in Russia, and particularly business activity that could benefit the Russian military.