Give Koch Industries credit for consistency: It’s aiding the foes of democracy at home and abroad.

In the two weeks since I wrote about U.S. companies that remained in Russia despite Vladimir Putin’s savage invasion of Ukraine, corporations have, admirably, continued stampeding to the exits.

More than 450 multinational companies have withdrawn from Russia in some form, according to the list maintained by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his team at the Yale School of Management, sending a clear message to Russians that Putin’s actions are beyond the pale.

Some of the pullbacks from Russia have been little more than a “smokescreen,” Sonnenfeld says, including candy makers Nestlé and Mondelez; sandwich-chain Subway; hoteliers Hilton and Hyatt; agricultural giants Cargill and ADM; and oil servicers Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes. But these firms at least made symbolic gestures.

Then there’s the worst of the worst, in Sonnenfeld’s lowest category — those corporations “Digging In” and refusing to reduce activities in Russia. Only eight U.S. companies have this dubious distinction, Sonnenfeld’s team tells me: medical-device maker Align Technology, Internet company Cloudflare, International Paper, tire manufacturer Titan International, insurer FM Global, crane maker Manitowoc, laser producer IPG Photonics — and that recidivist corporate offender, Koch Industries.

Koch chairman Charles Koch (brother David died in 2019) is a top funder of right-wing candidates and causes, notably efforts to roll back voting rights. Now the maker of Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups and many other household brands is aiding Russia as it rolls back democracy in Ukraine rather less subtly.

Koch, keeping two glass manufacturing plants running in Russia, says it “will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government,” arguing that doing so would “do more harm than good.”

Sonnenfeld called those claims “absolutely ludicrous,” “arrogant” and “such a tortured logic it’s beyond absurd.” Koch’s website indicates that its software business Infor, its electronics business Molex and its industrial products business Koch Engineered Solutions also continue to do business in Russia. Their imports, exports and taxes help prop up the Russian economy, and therefore Putin’s war effort.

At the same time, various Koch-funded groups have been arguing against sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States. As Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby of the newsletter Popular Information reported, Dan Caldwell, vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, an umbrella group for the Koch network, said the “Stand Together community” believes that “broad-based economic sanctions rarely achieve their desired policy outcomes.” Caldwell previously suggested “neutrality” between Russia and Ukraine. Similar criticism of sanctions came from people affiliated with the American Institute for Economic Research, Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, all groups with Koch ties.

The Koch posture toward Russia is consistent with longtime efforts by Koch interests to fight democratic protections in the United States. The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council has promoted voting restrictions in states. Various Koch arms have funded initiatives and candidates that would limit voting access. Stand Together played a key role in defeating an election-reform and voting-rights package in Congress, as the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reported.

Americans concerned about the Koch threats to democracy can keep their shopping carts free of Mardi Gras and Vanity Fair napkins, Quilted Northern and Angel Soft, Brawny and Sparkle, Georgia-Pacific office products, and Cordura fabrics, all goods produced by the oil, chemical and industrial conglomerate.

Among the “featured investments” on Koch’s website is an (apparently outdated) boast about an ownership stake in American Greetings. That’s felicitous, because the maker of greeting cards offers all kinds of ways to put in words the sentiments Koch Industries has, through its actions, been sending to the world.

To the more than 40 million innocent Ukrainians attacked and bombarded by Putin: “So doggone sorry. Forgive me?”

To the families of the thousands killed by Putin: “Tonight, when you look up, don’t think of them as stars. Think of them as porch lights, welcoming your loved one safely home.”

To the 10 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes: “Toodle-oo, hasta la vista, sayonara. … Just to say goodbye and to wish you a world of happy new beginnings!”

Alas, a Koch spokesman, Rob Carlton, tells me Koch ditched its investment in American Greetings (but not in Russia) and that its website is “a bit out of date.” Sad! Now, the only American greeting Koch sends Putin is a most unfortunate one: “Hang in there.”

Opinion by Dana Milbank

Dana Milbank is an opinion columnist for The Washington Post. He sketches the foolish, the fallacious and the felonious in politics.