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Russia labels Stoli owner ‘extremist’
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has begun the process of confiscating Stoli vodka owner Yuri Shefler’s assets in the country.
Stoli, which is now produced in Latvia, has made its stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine abundantly clear, changing its name from Stolichnaya to distance itself from Vladimir Putin’s regime, and even releasing a bottle adorned with the colours of the Ukrainian flag and the hashtag ‘LiberateUkraine’.
Shefler’s long-running feud with the Russian state also concerns the ownership of the Stoli/Stolichnaya brand, with Russia claiming that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the brand fell under the ownership of the Russian Federation, and not Shefler’s SPI Group, which acquired it in 1997. The state-owned version of the vodka is still sold under the name ‘Stolichnaya’.
Russian-born Shefler was exiled from the country in 2000 and now bases his business operations in Luxembourg.
Among the supposed actions is Shefler’s financial support of Ukraine, with bne IntelliNews reporting that his drinks companies are accused by Russia of ploughing €38 million into the Ukrainian war effort.
The Moscow-based Prosecutor General’s Office claimed that Shefler’s Amber Beverage Group Holdings and Stoli Group have “ideological and property interests that have a pronounced anti-Russian character”, and argued that their actions were “against the life and health of Russians, the security of society and the state”.
Tambov District Court near Moscow (or as ‘near’ as anywhere can be in Russia) is reported to have seized a distillery and a plant owned by Shefler earlier this week.
Shefler has also been involved in another long-running disagreement – but not with Putin’s Russia. The billionaire has been cited in the ongoing hostility between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie over the ownership of Château Miraval, with Pitt claiming that Jolie sold her shares in the Provence estate to Shefler without consulting him first.
Russia is lashing out at the West due to the sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, and among the measures the Kremlin has taken is raising the import taxes on Scotch whisky.