Ukraine’s plans for Crimea

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Ukraine’s plans for Crimea’

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, April 6th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Ukraine says it sees a path to reopening talks with Russia about Crimea. And KKR is going big on a financial communications group. Plus boardrooms — they have this thing for going back to their exes. But sometimes there’s a reason things didn’t work out the first time.

Anjli Raval
Often CEO that has gone and is returning is actually coming back to resolve issues that they probably started.

Marc Filippino
I’m Marc Filippino and here’s the news you need to start your day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The US has been threatening to ban TikTok for a while now. There are national security concerns over the social media app: suspicions that its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, uses TikTok to spy on Americans. These US-China tensions haven’t scared brands, though. In fact, digital advertising on TikTok grew by 11 per cent in March. Analytics group Sensor Tower found that companies like Pepsi, Amazon and Apple were some of the biggest spenders on TikTok last month. But not every company is comfortable taking the risk. Some are moving ad spending to other platforms like Meta and Google, just in case the US does actually ban TikTok.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Russia annexed Crimea back in 2014, well before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv is now planning a counteroffensive. And one official tells the FT that if it goes well, Ukraine will be willing to restart talks with Russia about the future of the region. Chris Miller is here to talk more about Crimea and the war in Ukraine. Hi, Chris.

Christopher Miller
Hey.

Marc Filippino
Chris, you spoke to someone close to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. His name is Andriy Sybiha and he’s the deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office. He mentioned to you that talks about Crimea could reopen after this counteroffensive, assuming that this counteroffensive is successful. What exactly was he getting at there?

Christopher Miller
Yeah, you know, I think Andriy was saying that if we manage to recapture enough territory and really to put Vladimir Putin’s forces on the ground in Ukraine on their heels, then at that point, if our military approaches the administrative border of Ukraine, we’re willing to restart talks that Ukraine cut off last spring after these atrocities were revealed in Bucha and in Mariupol, and other, and other cities that Russia had previously occupied. You know, they are growing a little bit concerned about the length of this war, how long it might, it might go on for. And if they can be successful in recapturing a significant amount of territory, then they would move back to a diplomatic track.

Marc Filippino
This is, I mean, there’s a lot of ifs here, Chris. And obviously, like Ukraine wants to stay optimistic and plan as though success is gonna happen, which makes a ton of sense. But even if they are successful, isn’t there a lot of assuming on the table that Russia would even come back to the table and talk about this?

Christopher Miller
Putin has said repeatedly that the issue of Crimea, the status of Crimea, is not up for discussion. But I, you know, part of Ukraine’s planning here is that they’ll be so successful in their counter-offensive that they’ll sweep in and take back all of this territory. It’ll be a devastating loss for Russia. And their hope is that they’ll get to the point where Putin will have no other choice but to sit down and to try to negotiate some kind of settlement.

Marc Filippino
Would the Ukrainian public view any sort of diplomatic talks as a concession to Russia?

Christopher Miller
You know, I think any talk involves Crimea not being a part of Ukraine. That is what Ukrainians will see as a red line. And recent polls show almost as much as 90 per cent of Ukrainians are completely against ceding any territory to Russia. Very forthcoming about what he sees here. You know, this is not a negotiation that he’s going to go into where he is willing, I think, to negotiate Crimea away from Ukraine.

Marc Filippino
Chris Miller is the FT’s Ukraine correspondent. Thanks, Chris.

Christopher Miller
Thank you.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Marc Filippino
KKR is buying a large stake in the financial communications group FGS Global. Sources tell the FT that the deal could be announced as soon as next week and it would value FGS at around one and a half-billion dollars. FGS is backed by the British media and advertising group WPP. This is just the latest example of a big buyout group making its way into a communications sector that focuses on strategy and crisis advice. KKR, FGS and WPP all declined to comment for the story.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

You might notice that companies are bringing back familiar faces to run their business. Disney brought back Bob Iger as CEO last year. Howard Schultz has returned to the head of Starbucks on three different occasions. And last week, UBS tapped former CEO Sergio Ermotti to lead the bank as it acquires rival Credit Suisse. Our management editor, Anjli Raval, has written about these boomerang CEOs as they’re called. Hi, Anjli.

Anjli Raval
Hi.

Marc Filippino
First of all, clever name. Boomerang CEOs. I love it.

Anjli Raval
Yeah. I mean, this is sort of management speak, really. It’s sort of used largely in the US because this is a largely US phenomenon. They’re also known as bounce back CEOs over here in the UK.

Marc Filippino
Why are companies doing this? Why are they bringing back former CEOs?

Anjli Raval
Fundamentally, it’s about a search for safety. People, and I say, people. I mean, boards, top company executives. They like the familiar in a time of crisis. They know these people. Often these people are the ones that hired them many moons ago. At the same time, they understand corporate culture. They’re not starting from scratch. They have an idea of what’s going on.

Marc Filippino
So you recently spoke to Chris Bingham, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who researched how well these boomerang CEOs shake out. What did he find?

Anjli Raval
He actually found that the second time round they don’t perform as well. And largely that is because the business environment has changed. I mean, just look at the last two years alone. So Ermotti’s coming back to UBS after only two years, but only two years means the entire Covid pandemic, a war in Ukraine. You’ve got, you know, inflation. You’ve got issues all over the world, big geopolitical crises, big economic crises. And this is what he’s coming back to.

Marc Filippino
So what’s your big takeaway here, Anjali?

Anjli Raval
The interesting thing here is it’s actually not about the individual themselves who’s coming back. Obviously on the surface, it looks like they’re complete heroes. But more than anything else, it probably shows that there’s been a failure in succession planning for most of these companies. Often CEO that has gone and is returning is actually coming back to resolve issues that they probably started. And so it shows that not only have these particular CEOs not done their job in terms of finding appropriate successors, but the boards are then not holding the outgoing CEO to account and trying to plan for the future.

Marc Filippino
Anjli Raval is the FT’s management editor. Thanks so much, Anjli.

Anjli Raval
Thank you.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Marc Filippino
You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. We’re taking tomorrow off for Good Friday. We’ll be back on Monday, April 10th. The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson and me, Marc Filippino. Our editor is Jess Smith. We had help this week from Michael Lello, David da Silva, Peter Barber and Gavin Kallmann. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio, and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.

[MUSIC PLAYING]