Wetherspoon Pulls Russian Lager From Sale Because Of Ukraine Invasion

Wetherspoon pubs will no longer stock a Russian beer after the country invaded Ukraine.

The pub chain has confirmed that it will no longer have Baltika Lager behind the bar of any of the 870 or so pubs around the United Kingdom following the actions of Vladimir Putin.

Baltika is served in bottles at the pubs, and comes from St Petersburg, which is Putin’s birthplace, as it happens.

The bottles, which cost £2.99 a pop, will be returned back to the distributor, Carlsberg.

A statement from Wetherspoon read: "In light of the situation in Ukraine we just felt that we could not stock it anymore.

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"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."

Baltika Breweries’ beers are distributed around the UK by Carlsberg, which is also responsible for the distribution of popular beers like Heineken and Kronenbourg.

Those beers will still be available, of course.

According to Mirror Online, one Wetherspoon employee said: "Big Tim [Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin] doing bits to help the war effort, good lad."

Another joked: "That's it, Putin is fuming."

Baltika is currently the only Russian product that Wetherspoon pubs stock.

While this is hardly the sanction that will tip the balance and get Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukrainian sovereign soil, others have taken a harder stance.

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The UK, USA, and EU – as well as many countries around the world – have hit Russia hard with financial sanctions, as well as limits on private citizens and their assets.

Aleksandr Orlov, the popular meerkat from the Compare The Market adverts, has also been binned off temporarily as a result of his accent, which sounds Russian.

Orlov will no longer appear on screens near to news programmes and news content online.

A spokesperson said: "The CompareTheMarket meerkats are fictional characters. They have no association with Russia and the current situation.

“We are continually reviewing our advertising to ensure we’re being sensitive to the current situation."

The adverts have been running since 2009, and feature a number of Russian-sounding meerkats flogging a variety of services for the insurance comparison site.