Coca-Cola under investigation for drawing a map of Russia with Crimea

Ukrainian prosecutors are launching a criminal investigation against the beverage giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo over the inclusion of the Crimean peninsula on the Russian map.

Coca-Cola Map.

Ukrainian MP Georgy Logvinsky said on January 21 that Ukrainian prosecutors had launched a criminal investigation against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo after their representative offices published a map showing the Crimean peninsula as part of Russia. “On January 11, 2016, a criminal investigation was launched based on signs of a crime…”, Mr. Logvinsky wrote on his personal Facebook page.

The crimes under investigation include intentional violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, illegal use of product and service trademarks, illegal use of company names, as well as crimes related to quality indications of origin of products.

PepsiCo map.

The scandal erupted in Ukraine in early January when a Coca-Cola representative office published a map of Russia that included the Crimean peninsula. In response to calls from Ukrainians to boycott Coca-Cola products, the company's representative office in Ukraine apologized, saying it was unaware that the Crimean peninsula appeared on the Russian map. Meanwhile, in Russia, PepsiCo's representative office also showed the Black Sea peninsula as part of Russian territory.

In March 2014, Crimean and Sevastopol city authorities held a referendum on joining Russia, in which the majority of residents supported the annexation. That same month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty on Crimea's accession to Russia, which was ratified by the parliament three days later.

Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev still refuses to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

According to News