Russia has become a global pariah thanks to its invasion of Ukraine. Not only have many countries levied tough sanctions against Russia and some of its most powerful individuals, including President Vladimir Putin, but now even businesses and average citizens are boycotting Russia and supporting Ukraine, too.
UEFA and Formula 1 have cancelled high-profile Russian events. Hacker group Anonymous has launched DDoS attacks against RT and the Russian Ministry of Defence. Chicken kievs are flying off supermarket shelves across the world… Now, Australia’s top liquor store chains are pulling Russia’s most famous export – vodka – from their shelves in a show of solidarity with Ukraine.
Endeavour Group, which owns Dan Murphy’s (the single biggest bottle shop chain in the country), BWS, Jimmy Brings and hundreds of hotels across Australia, has quickly enacted a company-wide boycott of Russian products.
“As an organisation, Endeavour Group is deeply concerned with the situation in Ukraine and we join the calls for peace,” a spokesperson said in a statement yesterday.
This is huge: Endeavour (which was recently spun out of supermarket giant Woolworths) alone controls around 50% of the entire liquor retail market in Australia, so their choice to pull Russian products will have immediate and obvious consequences. It’s also highly symbolic, as vodka is easily the most internationally recognised Russian good.
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Already, BWS and Dan Murphy’s customers are reporting bare shelves where Russian vodka brands have been pulled. Dan Murphy’s webstore has also scrubbed all mentions of Russian vodkas, and have deleted Russia from their country of origin filters.
Coles, Endeavour’s main rival in the liquor store space, is yet to follow their competitor in pulling Russian alcohol from shelves, ABC News reports.
Endeavour’s move follows similar moves made by businesses across the Western world, including in the United States, where many stores and private citizens alike have been pouring Russian vodka down the drain in further signs of solidarity.
Some Russian vodka brands that are popular in Australia that will be affected by Endeavour’s boycott include Beluga, Stolichnaya and Russian Standard. Many brands that you might assume are Russian are not, however: for example, if you buy a bottle of Smirnoff in Australia, chances are it was made locally, or in the United States.
We here at DMARGE have also put together a list of quality non-Russian vodka brands that you should consider purchasing if you too want to pour Putin down the drain.
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