>>143675, >>143676 [reminder] July 2, 2024 How USSR Swapped the Navy for Pepsi Soda
The first Pepsi-Cola plant in the USSR was opened in Novorossiysk and since the Soviet ruble was not a convertible currency, supplies of equipment and concentrate for the production of soft drinks were agreed to be paid by barter - the famous Russian vodka. PepsiCo plants appeared in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Tallinn, Tashkent and other cities. By 1978 they were producing over 200 million bottles of Pepsi a year.
By 1989 there were already 21 PepsiCo plants in the USSR, it was planned to open 26 more, but the trade agreement expired, and Americans were no longer satisfied with one single [brand of] vodka. In addition, the USSR was experiencing financial difficulties, however a solution was found. Under the terms of the new contract signed by Mikhail Gorbachev, PepsiCo received 20 old warships for supply of raw materials and equipment: 17 submarines Project 613, a destroyer, a cruiser and a torpedo carrier.
As a result, PepsiCo became the possessor of the sixth largest navy in the world. “We’re disarming the Soviet Union faster than you can,” Kendall told Brent Scowcroft, former President George W. Bush’s security adviser, then.
In 1990, PepsiCo managed to launch another brand after the collapse of the Union - Pizza Hut, in the advertisement in which ironically fate dreamed [they cast] former General Secretary Gorbachev. (https://www.kommersant.ru/em30)
