- Putinka vodka has earned Vladimir Putin millions of dollars, according to Proekt.
- The company agreed to give Putin a cut of profits in exchange for using his name, per the outlet.
- Later, the brand changed hands and was for years owned by a company secretly controlled by Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has apparently been raking in a fortune from a vodka brand named after him, according to a new report.
Launched in 2002 by alcohol company Winexim, Putinka vodka quickly became a market leader, according to independent Russian outlet Proekt. But in order to use Putin's name, Winexim's co-owner Oleg Plakhuta had to ask Arkady Rotenberg — an oligarch with strong connections to the president — for Putin's permission, an unnamed source told Proekt.
There was a price. Plakhuta had to share the business with the two men, who ended up with control of its earnings, according to Proekt.
In fact, the company was secretely owned between 2014 and 2020 by a subsidiary of a company whose ultimate owner is Putin, Proekt reports.
The vodka brand brought in vast sums, with some distributors showing up with bags full of cash to get permission to sell it. Some of that cash was "always intended for Putin," an unnamed source told Proekt.
"You have no idea how much money this is," the source added.
Between 2004 and 2019, Putinka made between $400 and $500 million, the outlet estimated. It is unclear how much of that money went to Putin.
Over the years the Putinka brand changed hands several times, to companies controlled by or connected to Rotenberg or Putin.
In 2014, it was transferred to a subsidiary company of Ermira Consultants — a Cyprus-registered company fronted by an obscure businessman but whose ultimate owner is Putin, according to Proekt. Putinka then passed into the hands of Baikal-Invest in 2020, a company likely controlled by Rotenberg's associates, the outlet said.
Proekt says its source for these revelations is a former manager of a network of companies including Ermira, who revealed the informations out of disgust with Russia's war in Ukraine.
The marketing expert who helped launch the brand, Stanislav Kaufman, told the outlet that they had been inspired by a cheap, unbranded vodka from Soviet times.
Putinka vodka received a boost in 2015, when Russia slashed the minimum price of vodka by 16%, from the equivalent of $3.10 for half a liter to $2.60, The Washington Post reported.