According to Russian media, the president would have earned about half a billion dollars
Russian President Vladimir Putin never drinks alcohol, but he earned the equivalent of at least $500 million between 2004 and 2019 from the sale of a vodka that bears his name. This was revealed by the investigative site Proekt.
Arrived in stores in 2002, Putinka vodka has become the queen of the Russian market since 2005 with 40 million liters sold annually. Its popularity, notes Proekt, coincides with a spike in alcohol-related deaths in Russia. According to the site, Putinka’s owners have changed over the years, but all were linked to the Russian president’s circle and paid a portion of the profits to Putin.
Among the owners of the vodka are Ermira Consultants, an offshore company in Cyprus linked to Putin, whose funds were used to build his luxurious residence in Sochi. The existence of the mansion and the offshore company were revealed in 2021 by an investigation by dissident Alexei Navalny, currently held in a penal colony.
Source-www.adnkronos.com