stage of denial
After the release of the investigation by The Insider and Le Monde, which described how the Russian division of Auchan supplied goods to the military of the Russian Federation, the French leadership of the Auchan network published a response where they denied any involvement in such supplies:
“ Auchan does not provide any voluntary and active assistance to deliveries to anyone other than the civilian population of Russia. Auchan Retail does not host, support or fund any " charitable " fundraisers for the Russian military."
The network also claims that the order mentioned in the article was made by the city council of St. Petersburg and that “there was nothing in the goods ordered during this period that could suggest a specific final recipient.” Auchan also stated that it has nothing to do with the points of collection of goods for the front by volunteers in different regions of Russia, just by coincidence these points of collection are located in the same premises as Auchan.
What's wrong with Auchan's excuses
Almost all statements in the Auchan press release are outright and conscious lies, easily refuted by numerous documents, photographs and employee testimonies given under the record.
Auchan admits that the March order was made by the city council of St. Petersburg, but why was it issued to ten private companies that are not formally owned by the government of St. Petersburg? Why, as the correspondence shows, were these ten companies selected by the Moscow management of Auchan? Why, when receiving goods for all ten companies, did one person sign – a certain E. A. Safronova? Why would Auchan and the St. Petersburg mayor's office arrange the delivery in such a way that it looks like a purchase of private companies? Is it because these "purchases" were fictitious and, in fact, were an attempt to hide supplies for the Ministry of Defense in order to avoid sanctions?
Auchan claims that it did not know the final recipient. But the employees and managers of "Auchan" on the territory of "Auchan" pasted "humanitarian aid" tags on the packages of goods. At the same time, there is nothing for women and children in the list of goods for “help”, but there are razors and cigarettes. At least two representatives of the companies through which Auchan processed this aid confirmed on record (available to The Insider) that they knew that it was going to the military. Finally, officials from the St. Petersburg mayor's office (for example, Alexander Lyubimov, deputy chairman of the Committee for Social Policy of the city) themselves openly declared that this assistance was directed to the Ministry of Defense. That is, two weeks after the start of the war, the leadership of Auchan, together with the government of St. Petersburg, organized the collection of "humanitarian aid", consisting exclusively of goods for men, but the leadership of Auchan had no idea about the final destination?
Auchan is trying to present the March deliveries as a regular purchase. Auchan's regional logistics manager, who was in charge of arranging these deliveries, told The Insider that, according to her, Auchan provided assistance free of charge from its warehouses. This is consistent with the fact that the managers of "Auchan" glued the signature "humanitarian aid" on the packages – that's why it is humanitarian aid, to be provided free of charge. But if Auchan really supplied humanitarian aid, for example, for refugees, then why hide and deny it, why not post information about it on your website, why furnish everything as a commercial purchase? Is it because the leadership of Auchan was well aware that these goods were intended for the Ministry of Defense (as St. Petersburg officials publicly spoke about in plain text )?
The management claims that the collection points for the Russian military only coincidentally were in the same shopping centers as Auchan, but why then did the volunteers who collected aid for the military in different cities (for example, in Vladimir and Rybinsk) publicly thank "Auchan" for their help and in the reporting photographs shook hands with the regional employees of "Auchan", dressed in the uniform of "Auchan" and against the background of "Auchan"?
The only question that remains open is what the French management of the holding knew about the activities of its Russian division. But it would be very strange if they did not know anything, because among the Russian management there are many French citizens, such as, for example, the sales director of the Russian Auchan Laurent Proust, the immediate head of the organizer of St. Petersburg supplies, Evgenia Storozheva.
The path from "Auchan" to the soldiers
On February 24, 2022, the day the full-scale invasion began, Ivan Martinovich, CEO of Auchan Retail Russia, told his employees that “Auchan is a business, not politics,” and notified that the network would continue to operate in Russia. A few days later, on February 28, the Governor of St. Petersburg Beglov issued an order for the city administration to collect humanitarian aid for the "LDNR" and "further as the territories are liberated." At first, the city administration cooperated with the Ministry of Emergency Situations and collected long-term storage products (antiseptics and warm clothes, a total of 129 tons), but then it began to help the Ministry of Defense and collect things for the soldiers, connecting various loyal commercial organizations to the collection of this assistance. It is at this stage that Auchan is involved and, among cigarettes, lighters, stews, men's things, etc., supplies the Every Day toothpaste, on the example of which we can trace the path from Auchan to the military.
On March 15, 2022, all managers and related departments of Auchan stores in St. Petersburg and the main warehouse of the Auchan St. Petersburg RC receive an order from the department controller Natalia Zeltser by internal office mail with an instruction to collect goods for " humanitarian aid". The list and quantity of goods for stores and a warehouse is supervised by the regional head Evgenia Storozheva (her immediate supervisor is Laurent Proust, a French citizen, sales director).
All boxes and pallets were completed on March 15 at the warehouse of the Auchan St. Petersburg RC at the address: Moskovskoye shosse, 177 building 2. The boxes contain cigarettes, canned meat, washing powder and much more, including toothpaste in the amount of 1000 pieces .
The logistics department, represented by warehouse operations manager Dmitry I., confirms the collected quantity and vehicles that will deliver the goods from the warehouse on the night of March 16 and along the way will pick up the collected "humanitarian aid" from the Auchan stores in St. Petersburg for transportation to the final destination "Auchan Severny".
The warehouse operator makes a distribution to stores with the data of vehicles that will go shopping from the warehouse to collect "help":
On March 16, 2022, the goods are in the Auchan Severny hypermarket at the address: 41A Kultury Ave. Only a few individual items from the list are delivered from other stores during March 16-17, they were collected by the evening by the controllers of the Auchan department Vladislav Kolmakov and Vitaly Lavrinenko at the direction of the same Evgenia Storozheva.
On March 17, 2022 at 14:50, the controller of the department Natalya Zeltser asks the corporate accounting department of the Auchan central office in Moscow to issue invoices for ten legal entities. On March 18, the accountant of the Auchan CO confirms the invoices. All ten selected companies carry out orders for state-owned companies or municipal institutions.
Goods, including toothpaste, are checked by the commerce department and assembled on 4 pallets in the transit zone of the Auchan Severny hypermarket.
March 21 at 15:20 Natalia Zeltser receives an email from the corporate accounting department with an attachment of universal transfer documents (UPDs).
According to these documents, the toothpaste must be picked up by the Energia-3000 company (TIN 7813139474). At 15:28 Zeltser notifies Rusaeva, an employee of the warehouse of the Auchan Severny hypermarket, that it is necessary to print and prepare the UPD.
On the morning of March 22, 2022, vehicles from a third-party carrier arrive at Auchan Severny and pick up 4 pallets of "humanitarian aid", including toothpaste. For all ten legal entities, one person signs – "leading engineer" Safronova E.A.
Then all the goods, including toothpaste "Every Day", are delivered directly to the airfield near St. Petersburg, and from there – to the war zone (which was confirmed by officials in their report, announced in the public chamber of St. Petersburg).
Finally, Energia-3000 CEO Galina Baranova confirmed to The Insider that the toothpaste was intended for the military.
This is what the supply chain for the Ministry of Defense looked like in the first weeks of the war. Later, after the announcement of mobilization, aid began to be sent not only directly, but also through collection points in shopping centers, where volunteers collected it for the mobilized soldiers. It is now difficult to establish which part of the items sent by volunteers were actually brought by ordinary citizens, and which actually came directly from Auchan.
