Stolichnaya: She changed her name so as not to be associated with Russia

Stolichnaya vodka changes its name as an “immediate response” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Stoli Group announced the renaming to simply “Stoli” on Friday, with the Luxembourg-based company stressing that its founder’s opposition to the Putin regime played a major role in the decision.

“While I have been in exile from Russia since 2000 because of my opposition to Putin, I remain proud of the Stolichnaya brand,” said Yuri Scheffler, founder of the Stoli Group.

“Today, we have decided to completely rename ourselves, as the name no longer represents our Organization. More than anything else, I wish Stoli to represent peace in Europe and solidarity with Ukraine,” he said.

Stoli’s production facilities have been located in Latvia since 2000, and last week the company stressed that it was moving to use exclusively grain from Slovakia to ensure that it was a 100% “non-Russian product”.

“We have employees, partners and distributors in the region who are directly affected. They are asking us to take a bold stance. This is an important thing we can do to make it clear that we support Ukraine,” said Damian McKinney, the company’s chief executive.

Recently, Russian vodka was withdrawn from the shelves of some stores in the US, Canada and the UK as a sign of support for Ukraine.

All this affected Stoli as well, apparently as people thought it was a Russian company.

The Stolichnaya brand dates back to the early 1900s, but gained a reputation during the Cold War as a rare Soviet product exported to the West.
The state distillery was privatized after the fall of the Soviet Union, but the Stoli group and the Russian government have been at loggerheads over the name for two decades.