Yerevan, August 9 /Mediamax/. The territorial administration of Rospotrebnadzor in Moscow stopped the wholesale trade license of the P.R.Rus’ JSC, the branch establishment of the French Pernod Ricard Company, which is the exclusive supplier of the production of the Yerevan Brandy Company (YBC) and a number of world spirit brands to Russia.

Russian newspaper “Kommersant” reported this today. According to the information of the newspaper, the formal reason for stopping the license was “the violation of the sanitary legislation”.

However the newspaper itself is inclined to think, that there was a political motivation for the decision. The main problem, according to the market participants, is that «P.R.Rus’» is one of the leaders in the segment of elite spirit beverages”. To this, “Kommersant” quotes the Head of the “GB Wine Holding” Sergey Artemenko: “It is a very unpleasant situation, and it shows that the officials make use of the crisis on the market of the import spirit beverages to extort even from such large companies, as Pernod Ricard”.

According to another version of the newspaper, the reason for the discontent of the Russian officials may be fact that Pernod Ricard owns the Georgian GWS Wine Factory, which deliveres wines to Russia. According to the “Kommersant” newspaper, P.R.Rus’ and other 7 companies, deprived of licenses, could have suffered in the framework of the campaign against Georgian and Moldavian wines, developed by the Russian officials. The authors of the article think that if the situation around Pernod Ricard is not settled in the nearest future, this may negatively influence the situation of the import of spirit beverages to Russia.

The newspaper also brings data of the “Business-Analytics” Company, according to which, P.R.Rus’ controls 55% of the Russian market of Armenian brandies.