South China Morning Post published this video item, entitled “Starbucks, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s left Russia, but their knock-off brands live on” – below is their description.
Famous Western brands like Starbucks and Coca-Cola that have exited Russia face years of battling knock-offs and unauthorised imports. It’s a risky bid as courts show little sympathy for firms that leave the country. Hundreds of companies pulled out of Russia in early 2022, after Moscow sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February that year. Some, like Coca-Cola, finalised their exit in August 2022 five months later, but have since applied to defend their trademarks to protect the brands from losing value and in case they return to the country. But the brands face a sea of opportunists, importers and flip-flopping court rulings.
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About This Source - South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post (SCMP), with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper founded in 1903. It is Hong Kong’s newspaper of record, owned by Alibaba Group.
China is the third largest country in the world by area and the largest country in the world by population. Properly known as the People’s Republic of China, the political territory of the country includes Tibet and Hong Kong. The capital is Beijing.
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is an American multinational beverage corporation incorporated under Delaware’s General Corporation Law and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The Coca-Cola Company has interests in the manufacturing, retailing, and marketing of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups.
The company produces Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton. In 1889, the formula and brand were sold for $2,300 (roughly $67,000 today) to Asa Griggs Candler, who incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1892.
The company has operated a franchised distribution system since 1889. The company largely produces syrup concentrate, which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold exclusive territories. The company owns its anchor bottler in North America, Coca-Cola Refreshments.
The company’s stock is listed on the NYSE and is part of DJIA and the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes. Revenue US$37.27 billion (2019).
Moscow, on the Moskva River in western Russia, is the nation’s cosmopolitan capital. In its historic core is the Kremlin, a complex that’s home to the president and tsarist treasures in the Armoury. Outside its walls is Red Square, Russia’s symbolic center. It’s home to Lenin’s Mausoleum, the State Historical Museum’s comprehensive collection and St. Basil’s Cathedral, known for its colorful, onion-shaped domes.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the south.
Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. Moscow is the country’s capital.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe known for its Orthodox churches, Black Sea coastline and forested mountains. Its capital, Kiev, features the gold-domed St. Sophia’s Cathedral, with 11th-century mosaics and frescoes. Overlooking the Dnieper River is the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a Christian pilgrimage site housing Scythian tomb relics and catacombs containing mummified Orthodox monks.