When Pepsi and Coca-Cola withdrew from Russia on March 8, 2022 it left a huge gap in the market. Up until Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, The Two Big Ones had a combined 92 % market share of the Russian cola market.

I did not take long, however, until local bottlers came Russian colaholics to the rescue and introduced a multitude of new colas.

April 2022

• Slavda Group in Vladivostok in the far east of Russia were some of the first to seize the opportunity and launched their Grink Cola.

May 2022

• Ochakovo (Очаково) in Moscow is one of Russia largest manufactures of beer, lemonade, wine, and hard liquor. In May 2022 they launched a line of soft drinks under the names CoolCola, Fancy, and Street.

• The Komi Republic northwest of Moscow launched their own Komi-Cola.

• The company Chernogolovka (Черноголовка) from the town of the same name near Moscow introduced Chernogolovka Cola. The company was already a market leader in bottled water, soft drinks, and energy drinks.

• Volkovskaya Brewery added a cola to their existing line of lemondes called Volchok (Волчок). It seems to have happened in May/June 2022.

June 2022

• Funky Monkey Cola Classic by Perspektiva (ПЕРСПЕКТИВА) came out in June 2022. It was meant to be launched in 2020, however, but was delayed due to Corona.

• Moscow Brewing Company produces both its own beers, and international brands under license. In June 2023 it expanded into the soft drinks market introducing the brand Dubl Bubl.

• Cola DV by IP Grizodup seems to have emerged in early summer of 2022.

• Loco Cola was first produced by Real which was taken over by United Penza Vodka Factories in late 2022. Google’s earliest memory of Loco Cola is from June/July 2022.

July 2022

• Bochkari Cola by Bochkarevsky Brewery came in July 2022.

• Bernaul Brewery (Барнаульский пивоваренный завод) already had a succesful line of soft drinks under the name Good Stripes. They also saw a business opportunity in the absence of Coke and Pepsi, and on July 14th 2022 the first Good Stripes Cola rolled off the production line.

August 2022

• Belarusian vlogger Vlad A4 is arguably the most popular Russian speaking Internet celebrity. For years he has had his own clothes line and more recently he has launched a line of chips and soft drinks under the Lava Lava brand. In August 2022 Clown Cola (Клоун-кола) was introduced.

• Dobry Cola (Добрый кола = “Good Cola”) is made by Multon Partners which is owned by Coca-Cola HBC. The Dobry brand was already Russia’s largest juice manufacturer. Dobry Cola was launched in August/September 2022 – around the same time when Russia ran out of Coca-Cola syrup.

• The brewery Bavaria also launched their Cola Bavaria Limited Edition in August 2022.

• The Russian food retail chain VkusVill (ВкусВилл) with 1.500 stores in Russia (2023) also has its own cola, Vkus-Cola (Вкус-кола). It seems to have been introduced in August 2022.

• Mineral water and soft drink manufacturer Karachinsky Istochnik from Novosibirsk added an Extra-Cola (Экстра-Кола) to their line of soft drinks under the brand name Extra. The drink seems to have been put on the market in August 2022.

October 2022

• Sunbel Cola by Mareven Food Central came in October 2022.

January 2023

• SNS already produced Alfa Cola under its Fresh Bar brand which is a cola/lemon blend. They added another four variants in January 2023; Original, Zero, Vanilla – and Banana!

• Slava Cola (Слава Кола) was also introduced in January 2023. The company Legend of Baikal bottles water from the deep end of Lake Baikal which is both the deepest lake in the world, and the largest fresh water lake by volume in the World.

March 2023

• Good old PepsiCo had initially decided to reduce their activities in Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Pepsi is no longer being produced in Russia but in March 2023 two PepsiCo-owned companies both presented a new line of soft drinks: Evervess in the higher price segment, and the budget friendly alternative Lyubimaya (Любимая = Favorite).

• The food and beverage manufacturer Martin from the outskirts of Moscow launched their own cola, Cola From Martin (Кола от Мартина) in March 2023. In July the same year it was banned in Belarus due to too high concentrations of the sweetener sodium cyclamate.

Spring 2023

• Russian company Aqua Fonte from Moscow is a market leader in bottled water, soft drinks, and energy drinks. In November 2022 they launched yet another brand, Sever, to which a cola was added in early 2023.
  Aqua Fonte also produces colas under the brands Kalinov, and Beauty-Youth.

June 2023

• Rich Cola (Рич кола) was introduced in the Summer of 2023 by Multon Partners (owned by Coca-Cola HBC), who also makes Dobry Cola. It is being marketed as a mixer.

September 2023

• Inzare Cola came in September 2023 and is made by Chechen Mineral Waters (Чеченские минеральные воды).

Primary sources: ria.ru (May 15, 2022), The Moscow Times (May 19, 2022), vk.com/bochkari_altay (June 22, 2022), Tolk (July 15, 2022), Executioner (December 26, 2022), Instagram/legendofbaikal.official (January 10, 2023), rbc.ru (March 16, 2023), Citizens Info (April 18, 2023)