Gay-rights protesters boycott Russian vodka

US journalist and author, Dan Savage, has launched “The Dump Russian Vodka campaign”, in response to new anti-homosexual laws passed in Russia.

These laws include classifying “homosexual propaganda” as pornography; banning same-sex couples from adopting children and allowing the police to imprison suspected homosexual or “pro-gay” foreigners for up to 14 days.

There has also been rising violence against homosexuals in the country such as the attacks at the St Petersburg Gay Pride march this year.

Savage, writing on the blog, The Stranger.com, gave a list of Russian vodkas to boycott with special attention to the brand Stolichnaya, as he thought it to be the “most iconic brand of Russian vodka”. Other vodkas cited by Savage include Dovgan, Gold Symphony, Standart, Hrenovuha, Kauffman, Kubanskaya and Russian Standard.

According to the New York Daily News, the United Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association of New York organised a protest with 200 Manhattan restaurants refusing to serve Russian vodka. The message to boycott quickly spread across cities of North America, including bars and clubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver. Other areas of the world joined the boycott, such as The G-A-Y Group in London; owners of the Heaven club which has a capacity of nearly 2,000 people.

Jeremy Joseph, founder and owner of the G-A-Y Group is reported to have said, “as other countries move forward (on gay rights), Russia is moving backwards. It’s important to show solidarity at a really hard time.”

On the other hand, although Stolichnaya (the main target of the campaign) was historically a Russian brand with Russian ingredients, the majority of all Stoli sold in the west is made in Latvia and not in Russia. The vodka is produced in Latvia at Latvijas Balzams (90% owned by the Luxembourg-based SPI group) and is one of the nation’s biggest exporters, employing 600 people. SPI is controlled by Russian-born billionaire Yury Shefler who left Russia a decade ago after falling out with the Kremlin over his support of opposition political parties.

Val Mendeleev, chief executive officer of the SPI Group stressed in an open letter to the gay community that “Stolichnaya Vodka has always been, and continues to be a fervent supporter and friend to the LGBT community” and as reported by The Spirits Business added that “in the past decade. SPI has been actively advocating in favour of freedom, tolerance and openness in society, standing very passionately on the side of the LGBT community.”

The Latvian LGBT human rights group- Mozaika- have urged to campaigners to drop the boycott of Stolichnaya as they say it will only harm Latvian people.

However, the group Queer Nation argued that “though the company claims to be friend to our community, it was silent as the Russian government considered this horrific law, and it said nothing after the law was enacted. Stolichnaya only spoke up after the boycott was announced. Friends do not keep silent when those they claim to value are under attack.” Many others of the LGBT community have echoed this sentiment and will be continuing to boycott Stolichnaya.