Coca-Cola apologizes to Ukraine for its map of Russia that included Crimea

The Coca-Cola Company has formally apologized to Ukraine's embassy in the United States for publishing on Russian social media a map of the Russian Federation that included the Crimean peninsula. "I can only apologize for this as it simply should never have happened," wrote Clyde C. Tuggle, senior vice president of company, in a letter to the embassy.

According to Coke's representatives, the map "was prepared by an outside agency without Coca-Cola’s knowledge or approval." Kate Irvin, the group director of the company's Washington, D.C., office, emphasized to Ukrainian diplomats that Coca-Cola is "one of the large taxpayers in Ukraine," and "will continue to actively work in the Ukrainian market." Coca-Cola also promised "be a reliable partner in implementing a number of social projects" in Ukraine.

“It is not, and never has been, our policy to engage in the affairs of state in any of the more than 200 countries and territories where we operate. Our mission is to refresh the world and spread optimism through the high-quality products that we produce and distribute to consumers everywhere,” Tuggle wrote.

Embassy of Ukraine in the United States

• According to Tuggle's apology letter, Coca-Cola employs more than 1,500 Ukrainian employees, and has invested more than $400 million in Ukraine, over the past 25 years.
• On December 30, the company posted on Vkontakte (Russia's most popular social network) a map of the Russian Federation, introducing a New Year's marketing campaign. On January 5, following complaints that the map did not include Kaliningrad, the Kuril islands, or Crimea (which Russia formally absorbed on March 18, 2014), Coca-Cola published an apology, posting a new map of Russia that included these territories. The message read, “Dear community members, we sincerely apologize for this situation! The map has been corrected! We hope you will understand.”
• After social media users and journalists began drawing attention to the map, Coca-Cola deleted the entire post from its Vkontakte page, removing the map and all comments. (The content is still available on Google's cache.)