The Coca-Cola Company has officially apologized for Russian map with Crimea

The Coca-Cola Company has officially apologized to Ukraine for publishing on Russian social media a map of Russia that included the illegally annexed Crimea, Joinfo.ua reports with reference to Radio Liberty.

“I can only apologize for this as it simply should never have happened,” wrote Clyde C. Tuggle, senior vice president of the global beverage giant, in a letter to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington dated January 6.

The letter reads that the map “was prepared by an outside agency without Coca-Cola’s knowledge or approval.” It said also that the social media post was removed as soon as the company became aware of it.

It should be recalled that on December 30, the Coca-Cola company posted on its page in the social network “Vkontakte” a map of Russia.

After the Russian people began to massively express their dissatisfaction with the fact, that the map did not include Kaliningrad region, the Kuril Islands and Crimea, the company, published a new amended map on the night of January 5. The map showed Crimea as Russian territory. The company also expressed its apology to the Russians.

In turn, citizens of Ukraine denounced the company for such actions.

Thus, in the statement on its site on January 5, the Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. has expressed “its concerns to the Coca-Cola company and the U.S. Department of State about the posting in social media by Coca-Cola’s Russian office of a map of Russia that included the illegally occupied Crimea. The Embassy emphasized that Coca-Cola’s actions violate the official U.S. position condemning Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea, which is and has always been an integral part of Ukraine, and urged the company to immediately correct the mistake”.

Unfortunately, the official PepsiCo booklet shows the map of the Russian Federation that includes the illegally annexed Crimea.