The story
Soyuzplodoimport was established in 1966 to import food items, including cocoa beans, coffee, spices and vegetables, and to export vodka. In 1969, Soyuzplodoimport granted trademarks registrations for the vodka brands "Stolichnaya", "Moskovskaya" and "Russkaya". The company was not privatized, and remained under state ownership in the post-Soviet era.
In 1997, its then-president Yuri Shefler formed a new private company, Soyuzplodimport, almost the same name as the government-owned company, minus an 'o'. The new private entity then purchased some of Russia's main vodka brands from the government-owned Soyuzplodoimport for $300,000. An investigation by the Audit Commission valued the trademarks at $400 million. In October 2001, a Russian court ruled that Soyuzplodoimport was illegally privatized, and restored 17 vodka brands under its ownership.
In 2015, Soyuzplodoimport managed to win court cases against Shefler and regain control of the brand in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The decision was not final.
From Wikipedia’s article on Soyuzplodoimport, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3