but sonnenfeld has identified what he calls a hall of shame.n not to change their policy, among these, lg electronic, pirelli tires, subway sandwich shops. and polk industries. vanity fair napkins, authentic groups, eddie bauer and reebok. claiming those shoo stop investing in or buying the products of these companies. joining me, jeffrey sonnenfield, senior assistant dean of school of management. thank you for being here. i have asked you this with regards to voting rights, i could have asked it about guns, immigration. when is it important for corporations to worry about more than their bottom lines? what are the parameters? >> well, the geopolitical context is a critical part of a business responsibility. you want to have safety and trust in free markets and social harmony. and tolstoy visited america, and wrote the book "democracy in america." it's that communities trust each other a foundation that believes there isn't just a tightness in the legal system. he called social capital. people think that's a recent term but that's what business

what reaction do you have to the quote that professor sonnenfeld gave you? >> i think he's making a very strong argument. i think there's plenty of other people who would say, ined youing nell minno who would say it's unmoral to supply to russians just because their president has invaded ukraine but i think sonnenfeld feels very strongly about this issue, obviously. and it is true that, you know, during world war ii, american companies continued to sell into nazi germany, up until the moment that the u.s. actually declared war against germany. mino and other assets would say until the united states is directly in war with them, that these pharmaceutical are in the right to continue to sell and manufacture pharmaceutical drugs inside the country. >> you have to worry as well, i mean, i -- my heart is with jeffrey sonnenfeld. my head is telling me something different. i worry that we're playing into putin's hand. because he's already trying to project this as, or portray this as an economic war that the west is raging against russia. now, all of a sudden, he c

retreat, jeffrey sonnenfeld, jeffrey yell professor, tracks sonnenfeld and which businesses are out,mpanies companies still still -- making we money in russia. welcome -- senior associate for leadership we -- school of management studies, and had a law many, at the economic harvard and heather columnist for the long, columnist at the washington post, and may i washington post say, one of the and, may i, say one of best, the best. mr. sonnenfeld, i i really want to really want to have this have this conversation conversation because you because you are are personally -- personally, and i thank and i thank you you for it, for -- talking to talking to every every fortune 500 company, fortune 500 company. doing business in doing business with russia, great russia. news that some have great news that some left, but i want you to have left, i want tell me the names you to tell me the of who is names of two is still doing still doing business they are and why. business there and a couple of why. hours to go, i a couple of hours ago i spoke spoke to him on the leaves who to -- said, hey sayi

jeffrey sonnenfeld, welcome to the newshour.companies keeps growing by the day-- over 300 so far, i believe. how big of an impact is it already having or could it have on the ground in russia? >> thank you very much. yes, it's having an enormous impact already. is that these voluntary business blockades, matched with governmental sanctions on certain key industries, finance and transportation, have worked to help slow up this economy, if not, bring it to a complete standstill. already, we're seeing inflation approaching 30%. we're seeing the russian ruble has plunged in value by 80% or so. it's unheard of. we saw this happen with south africa. we had this-- a great cooperation between business and government. although then, like now, there are no government officials encouraging this, or asking for it or pleading for it. there are no mandates. it's voluntary. but bishop desmond tutu, great civil rights leader in south africa, had told me back at that time, in the late 1980s, when business leaders did it then, how important it wa

sonnenfeld, i really want to have this conversation because you are personally, and i thank you for itompany. doing business with russia. great news that some have left, i want you to tell me the names of two is still doing business there and why. a couple of hours ago i spoke to him on the leaves who said, hey i, want to let you know, we are scaling back in, russia and i don't know what scaling back means. they said keberyekov, it oriole, cookies and hang, i'm not sure why they would only scale back, time to go cold turkey. >> it's exactly right. places like mondale eaves we're calling that humanitarian assistance, with those oreo cookie's, you've got to think of those companies that are there with some pretty halfhearted excuses many great companies left, and we don't need to celebrate them, they've gotten plenty of celebrations. technology companies are rarely the early movers. but in this case have the oil service companies, i can understand why they're still handing on -- haliburton, summer jay, commons engine, or some of these fashion companies, uniqlo. vehemently their, forgot,

yale professor jeffrey sonnenfeld is keeping a running list of the countries that have pulled out of us. this has happened relatively quickly over the last several weeks, major companies around the world, the biggest companies in the united states cutting ties with russia. what's the practical impact. >> it's enormous. bishop tutu how important it was to marry sanctions. we had 200 companies led by general motors back there in the late 1980s that pulled out of south africa, and that was a very powerful strangle hold. in this case, it's very important both for symbolic reasons, luxury brands and critical technologies, and things, but it also is major employers. it's a massive impact on the economy. and that's really what we want to do here, but we want to create some hardship on the general economy as putin survives not just as a tyrannical bloody autocrat but also the totalitarian aura, he can paralyze the civil sector, like gandhi did and the revolution against romania and east germany. when that civil society breaks down, you can get rid of it. >> the question is does putin care ab

the other thing is jeff sonnenfeld had a list of countre pulled out. who haven't pulled out.taying. but i found -- he was great on that. i mean, larry, listen, larry fink if i've known forever. he's at the center of global finance. there's nobody more plugged in than him. whenever there's a crisis like covid and, you know, the fed needs someone to bank its balance sheet that's expanding rapidly, they call up larry fink's blackrock. those guys are actually good at that stuff. -- he's one of the best. he's seen it all. he's lost money early in his career, and then he made a business, liz, out of managing risk. and he's done a very good job at blackrock. two things i think we should look at with what he was talking about. i think we have the stocks for. let's hear what he has to say about electric vehicles and batteries, because this, to me, is a big thing going forward. >> elon musk is a in addition varian. -- visionary. he transformed the auto industry, and now we have all the incumbents moving. >> how do we get out of the chinese trap with this, with the cobalt and all the mi

professor sonnenfeld said quote, i am glad they came around and made the right decision. it's a really important impact, and it's symbolic as much as it is substantive. today's hire director -- william burns who once served as ambassador to russia, gave the house intelligence committee this assessment of vladimir putin. >> i think he is far more insulated from other points of view and people who would challenge or question his views. in my opinion, that doesn't make him crazy but it makes it extremely difficult to deal with because of the hardening of his views overtime and the narrowing of his inner circle. >> leading off our coverage, nbc nukes correspondent cal perry, in uv ukraine. and return army john spencer and orban where affair expert and chair of the urban warfare studies with the medicine policy forum. cal perry, what is the situation there tonight? >> so lawrence, there were eight cities and there are eight cities that are under siege by russian forces across the country. at the beginning of the day, russian ministry of foreign affair said there would only be