Canadian Liquor Stores Dump Russian Vodka, other Products

Liquor stores and bars in North America are pulling Russian vodka off their shelves — and in some cases, pouring it down the drain — in protest of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on three fronts early Thursday, Feb. 24, “bombarding cities, towns and villages” as forces advanced toward the capital of Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that his military forces are protecting citizens in eastern Ukraine who want to rejoin Russia, BBC News reported. Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden have rejected those claims.

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said in a statement announcing sanctions against Russia, CNN reported.

To protest Russia’s aggression against the former Soviet Union republic, some liquor stores and bars are imposing their own sanctions.

“I think the whole world knows by now that Russia’s at war with Ukraine for no apparent reason,” Jamie Stratton, partner and director of Jacob Liquor Exchange in Wichita, Kansas told KIRO 7. “I guess this is our sanction.”

Jacob Liquor Exchange has removed all vodkas that are from Russia or have ties to Russia from its shelves, and the store plans to dedicate the space to Ukrainian vodka going forward, the outlet reported.

“If a customer requests these items, obviously we’re here to sell. That’s what we do,” Stratton told KSNW. “But I’m not going to put it on the shelves.”

A ski resort in Vermont that seemingly had similar ideas went down a different route — pouring the vodka down the drain.

“Sorry @Stoli lovers,” Magic Mountain Ski Area said in a Tweet. “No more.”

In a video attached to the tweet, someone off-camera can be heard asking for a Stoli and soda. A bartender responds, saying “we don’t serve Russian products here,” before dumping a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka down the bar counter’s drain.

The owner of another bar in Grand Rapids, Michigan pulled bottles of Stolichnaya and Svedka from shelves, M Live reported. Bob Quay, the owner of Bob’s Bar, said he would also remove around 10 bottles of Russian vodka from storage and search for new ones to take their place.

“It’s a protest against the aggression,” Quay told the outlet. “I just made the decision on the spot. It’s something little we can do.”

Quay added that, once it’s warmer outside, he might have a ceremony to dump the bottles out in the parking lot, M Live reported.

And the protests aren’t just happening in the U.S. Canadian liquor stores in the provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland said they would be removing Russian spirits, and the province of Ontario directed its Liquor Control Board to withdraw all Russian products, Reuters reported.

Because of that, Russian products will be removed from 679 liquor stores in Ontario alone, according to Reuters.

“The people of Ontario will always stand against tyranny and oppression,” Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said Friday, the Toronto Star reported. “To that end, I am directing the LCBO to withdraw all products produced in Russia from store shelves.”

Some brands are pushing back — Stoli Group reached out to Stratton, director of the Kansas liquor store, to ask that it continue to support their products instead of boycotting them.

“With regard to us being Russian. We are absolutely NOT a Russian company,” Damian McKinney, Stoli Group global CEO, said in a letter to Stratton, according to KSNW. “We are a global organization with a significant portfolio of spirits and wine brands from around the world, with Stoli’s European Global HQ based in Luxembourg. Stoli Premium and Elit are manufactured and bottled in Riga, Latvia.”

But the association with Russia doesn’t seem to be going away.

Bill McCormick, the owner of Pine Tavern in Bend, Oregon, poured out all of his bar’s Russian vodka. In a video shared on the bar’s Facebook page, McCormick can be seen double-fisting two bottles of Stolichnaya vodka and dumping them out in the parking lot.

The choice will set him back several hundred dollars, but he stands by it, KPTV reported.

“Russia is acting as though its 1939 and going into Europe with a full force that they have in the Ukraine. I am so concerned about it metastasizing into other countries,” he told the outlet, adding that he plans to support vodka made in Oregon from now on.

February 26, 2022