Russian State's Plans for Soviet Bubbly Get Up Noses of Producers

It's sweet, it's bubbly and it sells for less than £2 a bottle. Sovyetskoye Shampanskoye - "Soviet champagne" - may be sickly, poorly packaged and not a patch on Dom Pérignon, but it has a place in every Russian's heart.

Sold in supermarkets and corner stores across the country, this cheap sparkling wine is a must for any student party or booze-sodden birthday dinner. But now, just as Russians gear up for their most cherished drinking session, the New Year celebrations, a bitter row has broken out over the Sovyetskoye Shampanskoye brand name.

On Friday, five producers of the drink published a half-page advert in a national newspaper accusing the state of trying to set up a monopoly on the name by passing distribution rights on it to a single company called Vineksim.

Alexander Razuvayev, the general director of Risp, one of the five companies involved, claimed that this was an attempt to corner the market on "Soviet" bubbly.

"Since 2004 we have paid royalties to use the name Sovyetskoye Shampanskoye," he said.

"Now they want to take this historical brand away from us and give monopoly rights on its use to a business structure that is close to the state."

Sovyetskoye Shampanskoye was first produced in 1928, using low-quality white wine heavily sweetened with sugar. Last year it sold 110m bottles, but Razuvayev said that could fall to 20m next year if the main producers were prevented from using its name.

Soyuzplodimport, the state agency that issues licenses to use the Sovyetskoye Shampanskoye name, denied it was favoring Vineksim. A spokeswoman said the champagne producers had refused to co-operate with an advertising campaign to improve sales.

"We didn't want to stop agreements with any of the producers, but modern conditions require new promotion methods," she said. "You can't live in the past, in the last century."