Dan Savage is furthering his campaign to boycott all Russian vodkas in response to Vladimir Putin‘s war on gays, ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Yesterday Savage posted a copy of an open letter from Val Mendeleev, the CEO of the SPI Group, which is the international distributor of “Stoli,” Stolichnaya vodka.
“The recent dreadful actions taken by the Russian Government limiting the rights of the LGBT community and the passionate reaction of the community have prompted me to write this letter to you,” Mendeleev’s letter, which The Advocate published in full, begins:
I want to stress that Stoli firmly opposes such attitude and actions. Indeed, as a company that encourages transparency and fairness, we are upset and angry. Stolichnaya Vodka has always been, and continues to be a fervent supporter and friend to the LGBT community. We also thank the community for having adopted Stoli as their vodka of preference.
Mendeleev mentions in his letter the LOGO TV series “produced by Stoli in 2006 called ‘Be Real: Stories from Queer America’ which featured short documentaries on real life stories depicting the challenges and accomplishments of the LGBT community in the United States.”
He adds:
Stoli is very proud of its current exclusive national partnership with Gaycities.com and Queerty.com in search of the Most Original Stoli Guy. This is a fantastic program that started as a local initiative in Colorado and became a national platform. Previous national initiatives included serving as the official vodka of the Miami Gay Pride Week as well as ongoing events with focus on Pride month.
Mendeleev insists that while “Stoli is made from Russian ingredients… Stoli’s production process involves both Russia and Latvia.”
The Russian government has no ownership interest or control over the Stoli brand that is privately owned by SPI Group, headquartered in Luxembourg in the heart of Western Europe.
Savage, who is urging LGBT people and allies to change their social media icons to the above image, created by Matt Fikse-Verkerk and posted on Savage’s website, responds:
For the record: Regardless of where SPI Group’s corporate offices are located, the company is owned by Yuri Scheffler, one of the 100 richest men in Russia. SPI is a Russian corporation, Stoli is a Russian vodka. And while it’s nice that SPI is willing to market to homos who are lucky enough to live in Austria, the US, and South Africa, what has SPI done in Russia? The group has sponsored gay pride events in Vienna and Miami. That’s nice. But have they sponsored gay pride events in Moscow or St. Petersburg? Val says that Stoli is upset and angry. That’s nice. So has Stoli said anything to the Russian authorities? Has Yuri Scheffler expressed his anger in an open letter to Vladimir Putin? Did the SPI Group speak the fuck up before the Russian government passed a law that made it a crime to be openly gay and a crime to publicly support someone who is openly gay? Frankly I’m not interested in Stoli’s marketing efforts in the West. I’m interested in what this Russian-owned company is doing in Russia. And from this letter it’s clear they’ve done and they only plan on doing squat.
Stay tuned — more to come.
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Image by Matt Fikse-Verkerk via Savage’s The Slog