Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Alibaba Group Holding Limited, a Chinese group of companies, to the list of international sponsors of Russia's war. Alibaba, among other things, provides its platforms for selling goods made from copper taken from the occupied territories of Ukraine. According to Ukrinform, the NACP reported this.
"In Russia, the most widespread is the AliExpress online commerce platform, which is managed by the Russian subsidiary of the Alibaba group, Alibaba.com RU LLC. The owner of Alibaba.com RU LLC is Aliexpress Russia Holding Private Ltd. registered in Singapore. As of 2023, the company continues to do business in Russia, providing an international platform for the sale of foreign goods. The profit of Alibaba.com RU LLC for 2022 amounted to 16.3 billion rubles (about $160 million)," the NAPC noted.
In April 2023, Reuters reported that the Chinese company Quzhou Nova had purchased at least 3,220 tonnes 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 customs, the copper alloy was shipped from the plant through the port of Novorossiysk. The company uses the copper exported from the occupied territories to produce goods that it sells on Alibaba's platforms.
The NACP says Alibaba also censors Ukrainian content on its platforms related to the Russian war.
For example, in March 2022, Alibaba blocked the profile of a Ukrainian streamer who had more than 268,000 followers on AliExpress for posting about the war. At the same time, pro-Russian posts on the platform are not deleted.
All of these facts may indicate that the company supports Russian war of aggression not only financially by paying taxes but also ideologically.
As Ukrinform reported, the NACP sent letters to companies included in the list of international war sponsors, inviting the heads of such companies to visit Ukraine to see the consequences of Russian war of aggression and discuss the withdrawal of business from Russia.
