IDAHO — Upset about the invasion of Ukraine? Want to take it out on Russia? How about starting with a boycott of Russian vodka?
Maybe you’ll consider avoiding Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Idaho’s favorite liquor with sales of $11.5 million in 2021. But it’s not made in Russia, comrade. It’s from deep in the heart of Texas. Austin, to be exact.
How about Smirnoff, then, No. 7 in Idaho with sales of $5.2 million? That’s a Russian name and a company founded by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov in Moscow (not the Idaho city) in 1864. But the company hasn’t been there for more than a century.
Smirnov’s family fled Russia during the October Revolution of 1917 and relocated to Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. In 1924, the family moved to Poland, a town that’s now Lviv, Ukraine. Since the late 1980s, after a series of sales, the brand has been a part of Diageo, based in London. Its vodka is made in the United States.
Of the 104 brands of vodka available through Idaho State Liquor Division stores and bars throughout the state, only two — Russian Standard and Beluga — are actually produced by Russian companies. The vast majority come from other countries or are manufactured in the U.S.
Idaho Liquor Division orders Russian brands pulled from shelves
On Monday, the Idaho Liquor Division removed those two brands from shelves, agency Director Jeffrey Anderson said.
Russian Standard, which recorded sales of 3,300 of the 750-milliliter bottles and 3,200 of the 1.75-milliliter bottles in the past 12 months, also was pulled from store shelves.
The state liquor store on Grove Street in Boise also removed some $100 bottles of Beluga Gold Line Vodka. Beluga’s vodkas, Anderson said, were mostly available by special order and not typically carried in stores.
“We just feel that given what’s occurred in Ukraine that we’re going to ask people to enjoy something else,” Anderson said.
A third brand, Zyr, which is made in Russia but based in the United States, appears in the Liquor Division’s monthly price list but hasn’t been stocked since the middle of last year, he said.
Bottles of Russian Standard will be held in storage for now, Anderson said.
Russian brand of vodka not a brisk seller
Sales of Russian Standard fall below a benchmark the agency uses to decide whether to keep a particular brand in stock, Anderson said. But it hadn’t been delisted before Monday’s move.
“We do an annual examination of each category, and we have a criteria we use in order to determine whether something stays in the price book or should be delisted,” he said. “I’m not saying we’re going to delist the product, but it’s not setting the world on fire.”
In comparison, the agency sold 101,092 of the 750-milliliter bottles of Tito’s, 175,528 one-liter bottles and 149,517 of the 1.75-liter bottles.
Idaho’s action came two days after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ordered all Russian vodkas removed from the shelves of Utah’s state-run liquor stores. He issued an executive order in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia’s ruthless attack on a sovereign nation is an egregious violation of human rights,” Cox said in a statement. “Utah stands in solidarity with Ukraine and will not support Russian enterprises, no matter how small the exchange.”
Oregon, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania issued similar orders affecting retail outlets.
Russian Standard is owned by Roustam Tariko, a Russian oligarch. Beluga, Russia’s largest alcohol company, is led by Alexander Mechetin. Zyr is made outside Moscow, but the company is based in Miami, founded and headed by American David Katz.
Kamchatka vodka is bottled by Beam Suntory in Kentucky. The same state is also home to Stroika Vodka, manufactured by House of Harris.
Stolichnaya, or Stoli, is another brand with a Russian name that began in Moscow. Almost all of Stoli sold in the West is made in Latvia, a former Soviet republic that is a member of NATO. The company is based in Luxembourg and is controlled by Yuri Shefler, a Russian-born billionaire who left Russia after a dispute with the government.
On its website, Stoli says it “stands for peace in Europe and in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Stoli Group has had a long history of fighting oppression from the Russian regime. We unequivocally condemn the military action in Ukraine and stand in support of the Ukrainian people.”
