Up to $500 million: how Putin makes money by selling Putinka vodka (investigation)

Before the 2012 elections, the President of the Russian Federation sold alcoholic beverages to Russians at a substantial discount, in hopes of gaining the loyalty of the electorate. In 2022, the “Putinka” range was expanded with bottles with the military Z symbol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin receives revenue from the sale of Putinka vodka through Cyprus offshore Ermira Consultants. The opposition Russian publication Proekt writes about this from its research published Feb.

How did Putinka vodka appear?

In 2002, Stanislav Kaufman, Russian marketer and general brand master of the Vinexim company, came up with the Putinka vodka brand. Co-owner of the company, Oleg Plakhuta, asked billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, a friend of the President of the Russian Federation, to get permission from Putin to use his name. However, for this, the company had to get a share of the business.

As the publication explains, the co-owners were the direct leaders of the Kremlin and Rotenberg, which controlled all revenue from Putinka, including brand rights, production and trade of alcoholic beverages.

In the second half of the 2000s, Putinka was one of Russia’s most successful vodka brands. According to the results of 2004, the brand became one of the top three best-selling brands in the offensive country.

In 2004, Vinexim transferred all rights to the trademark to the company PromImpex, where Rotenberg’s employees worked, and ten years later it ended with the Russian “daughter” of Ermira Consultants – Real-Invest.

The brand is currently owned by Baikal-Invest. Journalists do not claim that the new owner of “Putinka” is connected with Ermira and the President of the Russian Federation. However, it is known that Rotenberg’s team is also behind Baikal-Invest, which is also linked to other projects of Putin’s joint fund.

How much did Putin earn on vodka?

The “Project” calculated the production, royalties and sales of alcoholic beverages from 2004 to 2019. It can bring it from $ 400 million to $ 500 million.

Vodka sales soared after Putin announced in 2015 that he had lowered the minimum retail price.

It is also known that two weeks before the presidential elections in 2012, Putinka vodka was sold at a significant discount in Russia.

In 2022, the brand’s assortment expanded to include bottles with the military Z symbol.

Recall that in the same investigation into the “project” it was said that the mistress of Russian President Vladimir Putin lived in a residence in Valdai with Alina Kabaeva, chairman of the board of the National Media Group (NMG). According to journalists, a Kabaeva penthouse with a design project by Valentin Yudashkin cost $ 15 million. In Sochi, 4 more apartments were registered as figures, and all the real estate of the gymnast could cost about $ 120 million.

Source: Focus

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