Wetherspoons has announced it will no longer sell drinks produced in Russia, following on from a stream of hospitality announcements this week.
In light of the current situation in Ukraine, the pub chain has removed bottles of Russian lager Baltika from all 870 of its pubs.
The beer is produced in St Petersburg, which just so happens to be the birthplace of Russian aggressor and dictator Vladimir Putin – who has recently launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
The drinks are now being returned to the distributor.
Northern bar group Arc Inspirations, which operates Box Bar, Manahatta and Banyan, said last week that it would be dropped all Russian-produced vodka from its bars.
Russia has also been banned from competing in several major sporting events.
J.D. Wetherspoon said in a statement: “In light of the situation in Ukraine we just felt that we could not stock it anymore.
Read more: Leeds-based bar group bans all Russian drinks from its venues
“As of today all those beers won’t be available in any Wetherspoons pub and either have been or are in the process of being returned to the Carlsberg distributor.
“We are not implying in any way that anyone involved with the brewery is directly involved with what’s going on but we thought in light of the current situation our pubs don’t want to be serving Russian beers.”
Feature image – Commons Wikimedia
