Putin's wines

For someone who is reputed to be an abstainer, Vladimir Putin has been taking an unusual interest in wine lately. Last year champagne imports were banned unless referred to as 'sparkling wine', while Russian sparkling wine could be referred to as 'champagne'. Wine imports are practically stagnant and have been replaced by Crimean and Krasnodarian varieties. Yuri Kovalchuk, one of Putin's closest friends and associates, controls most of the business. His Rossiya Bank recently received $60 billion worth of assets to prop up its state-run TV channels, so he keeps nationalism uppermost in his strategy. Only growers planting original Russian vines receive official subsidies. But it is the billionaire's two Crimea wineries that have attracted attention. The largest, Massandra, was founded with the support of the Russian imperial family in 1894 and has a cellar of a million bottles, many pre-1917 revolution.