Kathrine Frich
Behind that denial sits a massive fortune.
When global giants pull their famous labels off store shelves, the factories rarely stay quiet for long.
Local brands quickly step in to fill the gap, and the money keeps piling up behind the scenes.
Now, a quiet push to take over a massive drink empire is drawing high-level scrutiny.
A $3 billion prize
On Monday, the Kremlin refused to confirm whether a Siberian drink maker is trying to seize Coca-Cola’s local operations.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off questions about a bid by Altai businessman Vadim Smagin, saying, “I am not aware of whether such a request took place. Even if it did, we never comment on internal, official, working correspondence.”
Behind that denial sits a massive fortune. As the business daily Kommersant reported, Smagin’s beverage firm Bochkari wrote to President Vladimir Putin in mid-October, asking to be named temporary manager of Coca-Cola’s Russian units, Multon and Multon Partners.
While those plants stopped bottling classic Coke in 2022, The Insider reported that they now make local sodas like Dobry Cola and are worth an estimated 245 billion rubles ($3 billion).
According to Kommersant, the takeover pitch won partial backing from deputy prime ministers after Bochkari accused the foreign owners of halting local investment and backing sports events that ban Russian athletes. In return for control, Bochkari promised to pour money into charity and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
Cash piled high
What makes the target especially tempting is a huge mountain of trapped cash. Financial filings reviewed by The Insider show that Coca-Cola HBC’s Russian units held 1.04 billion euros in cash by July 2026, because sanctions make it hard to send profits abroad.
And the business is booming. According to Coca-Cola HBC’s annual report, Russian revenue jumped nearly 19 percent to 1.61 billion euros in 2025, making the unit roughly 18 times larger than Bochkari, which brought in $106 million.
Smagin, a regional lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party since 2011, has used this playbook before. As RBC and The Insider reported, Putin placed the local plants of aluminum can maker Canpack under temporary management in late 2025, and once that order was lifted in August 2026, Smagin stepped in to buy the business for $122 million after Canpack booked $354.7 million in losses.
