Spotify ‘helping fund Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by paying royalties directly to Putin’s Red Army Choir’

SPOTIFY was last night accused of helping fund Russia’s invasion by paying royalties directly to Putin’s Red Army Choir.

The American streaming giant lists the Red Army’s official ensemble among artists customers across the world can stream.

Rex

Spotify has been accused of helping fund Russia’s invasion by paying royalties directly to Vladimir Putin’s Red Army Choir[/caption]

The choir is owned and run by the Russia Ministry of Defence which should mean all royalties help fund Putin’s military.

Spotify stopped collecting subscription revenue from subscribers and ended advertising in Russia last Wednesday.

However, despite Western firms rushing to divest from Russia over the crisis, the military choir was still available to stream on the service’s platform last night.

The choir has had more than 100million streams via Spotify – putting the potential income earned by the Russian military at as much as £500,000.

Yesterday the service was also hosting playlists named “Let’s Invade Ukraine” and “Playlist to Listen To While Russia Invades Ukraine”.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith blasted the set-up, saying: “They should shut it down now and shut it down hard.

“Any outstanding royalties they should put into one of the funds to help Ukrainian people.

“If there is any suggestion they are continuing to pay royalties then they are putting profits before people.

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“Those people they have put the profits before are the very people fighting for the freedoms they take for granted.

“They need to stop it now and not take their freedoms for granted.”

Russian offices belonging to Spotify were shuttered the previous week, and removed podcasts uploaded by Russian state-affiliated media.

But it has continued to allow users in Russia to stream from its massive catalogue for free and said it would continue operating in Russia to “maintain the free flow of information”.

Last night Spotify failed to respond to efforts for a comment.

There was further criticism of other Western firms with sandwich giant Subway failing to properly withdraw from the Russian market.

The takeaway firm claimed it was unable to order Russian franchise-owners to stop trading, decspite other Western firms with the same business model, including Starbucks, divesting.

Mr Duncan-Smith added: “Western firms with franchise models should have the right to withdraw the permission for businesses to call themselves Subway.

“They will also control the supply chain, so they should make use of that to stop their trading now.”

Italian tyre maker Pirelli, worth €4.53billion, said last week it was constantly monitoring developments through a specially constituted “crisis committee”.

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The choir has had more than 100million streams via Spotify – putting the potential income earned by the Russian military at as much as £500,000[/caption]

It said it did not expect to halt either of its two Russian plants which produce 10% of its global output. “As things stand we do not foresee stopping production in any factory”.

US Oil services giant has continued to operate oil fields in Russia despite a specific appeal from a top Ukrainian official.

“Always unfortunate in so many ways for so many people,” Jeff Miller, Halliburton’s chief executive, said in January, about the prospect of a war. “

But from a business perspective, we’ve managed these sorts of things up and down for, I hate to say, nearly 100 years.”