Stoli on the rocks: How tangling with Putin and Brad Pitt helped doom the vodka brand in the US

Owning one of the world’s most successful vodka brands but having to file for bankruptcy is bad enough.

For that to happen while Vladimir Putin nurses a vendetta against you? One could say the person in question could easily go from making a toast to being toast.

Billionaire Stolichnaya vodka boss Yuri Shefler, 57, is firmly in the ruthless Russian president’s sights and has escaped poisoning and kidnapping attempts ordered by The Kremlin, according to reports.

Not only that, he’s also managed to anger Brad Pitt, one of the most revered A-listers left in Hollywood.

As well as physically trying to dispose of Shefler, the Russians have targeted him in the wallet, with his company – already acknowledged to be $78 million in debt – the victim of a ransomware attack further contributing to its financial woes in September.

While Russia has not officially acknowledged responsibility, a source knowledgeable on such matters told The Post, “It would not surprise me if Russia is behind it. Computer hacking is part of their playbook. And Putin is not happy with oligarchs who want to live outside of Russia or sympathize with the West.”

That led to Stoli Group USA, which imports the vodka to these shores, to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas this November.

Matters aren’t helped by the demand for vodkas of Russian origin plummeting since the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Shefler’s Stolichnaya is actually made in Latvia, even though it has a Russian landmark on the label.

Further exasperating things, Shefler has made clear he sides with Ukraine in the raging almost three-year war, which last week saw one of Russia’s most highly-placed generals assassinated in Moscow.

Putin’s revenge is motivated largely by Shefler managing to snag the prized brand – arguably, Russia’s most highly regarded export – at a bargain basement price during the 1990s. His refusal to surrender it in the early 2000s, when Putin wanted to renationalize the vodka industry, didn’t help.

Shefler was subsequently made a wanted criminal and outlawed in Russia, which produces its own Stolichnaya vodka within its borders. In 2022 Shefler attempted to rebrand as ‘Stoli’ to try and distance his product from Putin.  

By then he was also embroiled in another feud, after putting up $64 million to buy Angelina Jolie’s half of the Chateau Miraval vineyard and estate in the South of France, which she co-owned with ex Pitt.

Pitt’s lawyers maintained in a Los Angeles County Superior Court Jolie had “sought to inflict harm” on her former partner by bringing Shefler into the picture.

A complaint filed on behalf of Pitt states, “While Shefler may be seeking to launder his reputation by forcing a partnership with one of the world’s most well-known and popular actors, affiliation with Shefler and Stoli jeopardizes the reputation of [Chateau Miraval].”

Shefler fired back, claiming Pitt and his associates put into motion a “xenophobic, untrue smear campaign worthy of Putin himself.”

Pitt, in court documents, also described Shefler as a “bullying tycoon.”

The fate of the estate has yet to be decided in court, but if Jolie’s intention was to cause a legal headache for her ex, it certainly appears to have worked.

Alleged to be $10 million in the hole on legal fees, Pitt has insisted Jolie sold her share of the vineyard to Shefler out of “spite.” Jolie has denied this, saying she just wanted out.

Shefler, said to be worth $2.5 billion, remains something of an enigma. Many in his inner circle — but still far away from Moscow — worry discussing him could have repercussions on themselves.  

When one source heard the reticence to talk appears unbelievable, he responded to The Post by snapping, “It’s not unbelievable at all. Russia has a habit of killing people.”

Talking about Shefler, he added, “is very dangerous. About 50 Russian businessmen have ‘fallen out of windows’ since the war [with Ukraine] started.”

Shefler first appeared in the public eye outside of Russia in 2000, three years after he emerged from the chaos and wreckage of the fallen Soviet Union with the Stolichnaya brand.

While he worked to promote it outside of Russia, Putin, according to the vodka brand’s website, “waged a battle for Stoli vodka trademarks across the world” in an attempt to cut him out.

The stakes were raised in 2003 when Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office put out an arrest warrant on Shefler, accusing him of threatening to kill one of the country’s government bigwigs.

According to The Guardian, Shefler deemed the allegations to be “a lie and international slander.”

But that did not stop Putin’s people from setting off a manhunt for Shefler, who, by then, had been smart enough to leave the country and reestablish himself and his business headquarters in Latvia. Shefler received asylum in Switzerland and currently resides there.

The source added: “If Shefler was living in Russia, he could easily be dead and he would have lost everything. The courts would have made sure of that.”

Of course, being a hunted billionaire – who also owns a huge sprawling seven-bedroom mansion on the outskirts of London – hasn’t got in the way of Shefler leading a playboy lifestyle.

He was married to the Victoria’s Secret model Tatiana Kovylina, 43, with whom he has four children, and since their 2021 split, he’s been linked to Ksenia Sukhinova, 37, a 2008 Miss World winner from Russia.

Also, despite trying to keep incognito, Shefler cruised around the world in a $400 million superyacht named Serene. The craft has two helipads, a spa, its own rock climbing wall, and even a snow room that can produce four inches of powder. He eventually sold it to Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Shefler’s knack for business and negotiation dates back to well before he left Russia.

According to an article in Russia’s Snob magazine, Shefler was born into a Jewish family in a town 230 miles outside of Moscow. He served in the Red Army and graduated from the elite Plekhanov Institute with a degree in economics.

He’s claimed that, while in college, during the 1990s, he was contacted by the billionaire Boris Berezovsky for help in arranging the murder of a former newspaper editor.

Shefler, according to The Daily Mail, instead “claimed he had brought the editor and the potential killer together,” and helped them to settle their differences.

The Mail claimed Shefler wound up in the billionaire’s orbit; Shefler landed positions that saw him run an airline and shopping mall.

In 1997, he obtained 380 brands, including Stolichnaya, in Russia for the bargain basement price of $300,000.

A few years later his homeland disapproved. After the country’s Audit Commission realized the company was worth $400 million, the sale to Shefler was declared illegal and Putin requested his vodka brand back.

Police raided Stolichnaya headquarters and a court deemed the company to have been illegally privatized. Shefler took his business and split. According to the Guardian, he claimed, “I hide from no one and I have no intention of hiding.”

Since then, various court battles have taken place where Shefler and the Russian state have argued about who has the real rights to the Stolichnaya name.

Not that it means much in the US – exports of Russian vodka, diamonds, and seafood have all been banned since 2022.

The Russian premiere’s enraged state and reckless actions since the Ukrainian invasion all spell bad news for Shefler.

“Vladimir Putin is the don of the largest criminal organization in the world,” Justin Smart, a political consultant with a specialization in post-Soviet states, told The Post.

“Russia is not afraid to use violence. That is considered almost normal behavior.”

Even if Shefler has gone bankrupt in the US, many admire the fact he manages to keep doing business at all.

Considering the degree to which Shefler has gotten under Putin’s skin, the knowledgeable source said, “It’s surprising he’s lasted this long.”