Bars and liquor stores take stand against Russia by dumping vodka: 'Leaders do sanctions and this is our little thing'

There's always a party going on in Las Vegas, but at Evel Pie, a pizza parlor and bar named after famed American daredevil Evel Knievel, party met protest over the weekend in the form of an event where customers could purchase $300 bottles of Russian-produced vodka to dump out in gutters and toilets.

The festivities also included $5 Ukrainian vodka shots, aptly named "F*** Putin" shots, all to benefit charity.

Branden Powers is managing partner at Evel Pie and says when times get tough, he and his team look to Knievel, "an all-around badass," to determine how to help.

"When we saw the illegal invasion and occupation of Ukraine, we wanted to do something to help raise funds for the Ukrainian people," Powers tells Yahoo Life. "We focused our attention on Putin and not the good people of Russia, many of whom are our friends and are entertainers here in Vegas."

Powers says Evel Pie guests have dumped out over $2,000 worth of Russian-produced Vodka and drank more than 600 shots of Nemiroff, a Ukrainian honey pepper vodka, raising "several thousand dollars" to help the International Committee of the Red Cross with their Ukraine relief efforts.

And the party's just getting started.

"We're going to continue to do this as long as Putin occupies Ukraine," says Powers. "We know it's already been prepaid and Russians already have the money and all these things people on social media are saying, but it's symbolism. Leaders do sanctions and this is our little thing we thought would be best: One little pizza parlor in Las Vegas doesn't have lots of impact but if you have millions of people and businesses around the world that are doing it, it will have an impact."

Other businesses are ditching Russian vodka as well. Don Podrebarac is the owner of Southern Spirits in Fort Mill, S.C., and says he informed employees last week that all Russian-produced vodka was to be pulled from store displays and replaced with Ukrainian brands like Nemiroff, Kozak and Nikita.

"We're not going to support a country that is involved in such unscrupulous behavior that is headed by a maniac," Podrebarac says, adding that while pulling popular Russian vodka brands may mean his business will bring in less money, he's OK with that. "Sometimes you have to do the right thing even if it isn't the most financially wise thing to do."

Podrebarac believes if enough bars and liquor stores cease selling Russian vodka, the impact will eventually be felt by Russian leadership.

"American businessmen and women can lead by example in the things they do," he says. "Maybe there will be a bigger groundswell in this country to not buy stuff from Russia because aiding those people — not the people themselves because the people are wonderful, but the leaders who have evil intent toward our country and the free world — and giving them money helps fuel their fire and gives them the resources to do all the terrible things they want to do."

But just how much Russian-made vodka does the U.S. consume? According to the Distilled Spirits Council, only about 46,000 proof gallons of vodka imported by the U.S. in the first half of 2021 were from Russia — just over 1 percent of the nearly 3 million gallons brought into the country.

Still, the concept of pulling Russian-produced alcohol from shelves has also made its way to the government level: Utah Governor Spencer Cox has ordered that all Russian-made products be removed from state-run liquor stores and in Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine has called for a cease in the purchase and sale of Russian Standard vodka, the only Russian-owned vodka sold in the state.

For business owners like Jamie Stratton at Jacob Liquor Exchange in Wichita, Kan., making the move to cease the sale of Russian vodka is a small change that will hopefully will have an effect.

"This situation is wrong and the world has to stand up to Russia," Stratton, who is encouraging customers to purchase Kohr Ukrainian vodka instead, says. "They're bullies and that's the main point. Even if what I am doing is a tiny little ripple effect, hopefully, there's enough tiny ripple effects across the U.S. and across the world that it makes a difference."

"Whether or not it will, I don't know, but I can tell you this — there's no room for anything Russian in my store," Stratton continues. "We pulled everything off the shelf ... I hope it doesn't come to this, but we'll save the bottles just in case we need to make Molotov cocktails out of them."

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