Wetherspoons to stop selling Russian beer amid crisis in Ukraine

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon says it will no longer sell Russian beer due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Bottles of Baltika Lager - brewed in Vladimir Putin's home city of St Petersburg - will be removed from sale in all of its UK pubs, the company has announced.

A spokesperson for Wetherspoons said: "In light of the situation in Ukraine we just felt that we could not stock it anymore. "As of today all those beers won't be available in any Wetherspoon pub and have either 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." Wetherspoon also sells Smirnoff vodka, which is owned by London firm Diageo and produced in different distilleries around the world.

The pub chain is not the only hospitality firm to stop the sale of Russian products over the continuing invasion. Nightcap Group and Arc Inspirations have removed vodka and other alcohol products from their venues in a move of solidarity with people in Ukraine.

Sarah Willingham, former Dragon’s Den entrepreneur and founder of Nightcap, described the move as a “little thing” the business could do in response to the conflict.