Disney, EA Sports And Many Other Brands Remove Russian Iconography And Content Amid Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Amid the Ukraine invasion, economic sanctions of varying types have been targeted at Russia, restricting trade and creating problems economically for the country and Vladimir Putin. Purportedly in an attempt to pressure Russia, its citizens and the oligarch leadership, several events, products, releases and more, such as Formula 1 Russian races being canceled outright and all future races not taking place in the country, have taken place in addition to those sanctions.

However, even with supporters voicing their praise for such moves toward canceling Russian iconography, there has already been some pushback forming online, especially considering other countries with questionable actions over the last several years that aren't being sanctioned or called out as we've seen with Russia.

BEIJING (AP) -- Russian, Belarusian athletes banned from Beijing Paralympics in reversal of original decision by organizers.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 3, 2022

F1 cancelling the Russian GP while racing in Saudi Arabia next month pic.twitter.com/7jtO51U6UA

— ً (@rIane890) March 3, 2022

Russian F1 star banned from racing in British Grand Prix despite being allowed to compete in othershttps://t.co/OzqjKe1647 pic.twitter.com/WssmkFO75T

— Sun Sport (@SunSport) March 2, 2022

You watch: all of this insane anti-Russian hatred -- cancelling the Dostoevsky course, kicking Russian movies out of film festival, etc -- is going to be mobilized & used against internal dissidents in the future. Hate the war, loathe Putin, but don’t hate Russian ppl or culture!

— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) March 2, 2022

Adding to this sentiment is the private corporate sector of the West, of which many have removed or censored Russian content and products. For example, in Canada, one of the largest distributors of alcohol, LCBO, decided to halt sales of Russian vodka.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) will no longer sell Russian vodka. The LCBO in Canada is one of the largest, if not the largest, importers of alcohol in the world.

— Don Lewis (@DonLew87) February 26, 2022

Trudeau is really taking a position. Sanctioning $4 million of Russian vodka coming into Ontario but not a word about the $554 million of oil imported into Canada from Russia. A patriotic PM (if we had one) would support our own home grown Canadian oil & energy industry?

— Dave West (@davidallenwest) February 27, 2022

At the same time, EA Sports announced that the Russian national soccer team and all of the country's club teams would be removed from the next FIFA title, as well as NHL titles. Additionally the country has been banned from the FIFA World Cup and other soccer competitions.

BREAKING: In a HUGE loss for Russia, FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, announces that the Russian team will no longer be allowed under the name “Russia,” will no longer play home games, won’t have its national anthem played -- and may be totally banned. RT TO THANK FIFA!

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) February 27, 2022

The Russian animated movie Anastasia was also removed from Disney+ on March 1st, though, according to the blog Whats On Disney Plus, this removal was reportedly due to "pre-existing contracts" and that "this removal from Disney+ has nothing to do with the current crisis involving Ukraine and Russia."

Anastasia was never a Disney movie. It was on there because of licensing, that license expired. https://t.co/jehChH3qGN

— Beez2.0 (@BeezStandby) March 3, 2022

In another move, the Federation International Feline, a federation of cat registries, decided that Russian cats should be banned from registration and competitions.

The International #Cat Federation has banned #Russian cats from its shows. pic.twitter.com/R4JRNrb0h2

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 3, 2022

All of these cancelations, removals and censorships at Russian iconography have led to many social media users questioning the growing anti-Russian sentiment, especially with society not far removed from the anti-Chinese and Asian sentiment that proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years.

Notably among the rising anti-Russian sentiment, Mike Sington, a former senior executive at NBC Universal, tweeted in a now-deleted post strong statements against Russians in the U.S., calling to "expel Russian students studying in the United States," among many other controversial takes.

Although the former NBC executive deleted this tweet, I do want to share that within US academia there is still this widespread belief that Russian & Chinese students (foreign or not) are “spies,” and “should push come shove, their human rights can easily be discarded in the US.” pic.twitter.com/XqCN4wJeVR

— Tamanisha J John (@TamanishaJohn) February 26, 2022

As more and more Russian content and products are effectively canceled, the topic has become an immensely heated debate across the web as users argue whether this is a positive or negative trend that does more good or bad during the ongoing conflict.