Newsmax Guest Says ‘Cancel Culture’ Caused Businesses to Pull Out of Russia: Some ‘Companies Have Been Forced to Cancel Russia’

A guest on Newsmax argued on Saturday that “cancel culture” prompted several companies to pull out of Russia amid Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine.

Sanford Mann, CEO of American Hartford Gold, began the segment by discussing inflation and stock market volatility before being asked how the war in Ukraine is impacting the price of gold.

“Gold is on fire, it’s up 10% year to date, it’s up 66% in the last five years,” Mann said. “We saw the world basically froze all of Putin’s assets. The one thing they could not freeze was gold, Putin’s been living off of his gold reserves.”

He added that gold is often favored during times of geopolitical concern.

A Newsmax co-host noted that sanctions are “what we are using as a strategy now really to crush the Russian economy,” noting SWIFT as one example.

“But as we are doing this to try and punish Putin and try and get him possibly to stop what is happening in Ukraine, Sandy you’ve said that there could be a downside to some of these sanctions that the U.S. and the U.K. have now put against Putin and his regime,” she said.

Mann then said companies pulling out of Russia will cause lost profits, which in turn may have a negative impact on the stock market.

“We’ve seen cancel culture basically forcing a lot of U.S. companies, a lot of global companies, from ceasing doing business with Russia but the implied risk of that is a lot of these companies, Russia is their fifth largest market,” he said. “So when you have a company that no longer services Russia, it’s going to negatively impact their quarterly financials.”

Companies that have stopped doing business in Russia include McDonald’s, Starbucks, Netflix, Nike, several financial institutions, in addition to many others.

“Our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a letter to employees of the decision.

The Washington Post reported McDonald’s disclosed in a recent filing that its restaurants in Russia and Ukraine make up 9% of its revenue — roughly $2 billion last year.

Mann argued companies pulling out of Russia is “not a good long term plan.”

“Unfortunately, a lot of these companies have been forced to cancel Russia when in fact, it’s going to have a very negative effect,” he said.

Watch above, via Newsmax