Stoli vodka boss Yuri Shefler has claimed a former Latvian prime minister tried to hijack his multi-million pound empire for Vladimir Putin. The British-Russian booze mogul, 59, says ex-Latvian premier Andris Šķēle attempted a "corporate raid" on his SPI Group firm, the company behind Stoli vodka.
Shefler insists the move is part of a Kremlin plot to punish him for defying Putin. He claims the Russian president previously dispatched a squad of FSB secret service officers to kidnap him at an airport in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. The tycoon only escaped when he received a mid-air phone call warning him of the ambush, forcing his plane to make a U-turn.
Dossier handed to Latvian intelligence
Shefler now claims Putin is using Šķēle to tear down his booze empire instead. He has handed a dossier to Latvia's VDD intelligence agency demanding an urgent investigation into the politician, reports the Telegraph.
He told the newspaper: "I am calling on Latvia's security services to investigate the conduct of former prime minister Andris Šķēle, including his links to individuals close to Vladimir Putin and his apparent role in efforts to wrest control of my business from me. I believe Mr Šķēle, a man with links to Putin's inner circle, is involved in an attempted corporate raid of Stoli Group."
Shefler says he confronted the former politician during a tense showdown in Riga on September 1, branding it a "hostile takeover."
History of defiance against Moscow
The vodka king fled Russia in 2003 after resisting Putin's attempts to nationalise his Stolichnaya brand, famously Boris Yeltsin's favourite tipple. In 2022, Shefler further infuriated Moscow by publicly condemning the invasion of Ukraine and dropping "chnaya" from his booze's name to rebrand simply as Stoli.
"More than anything, I wish for 'Stoli' to represent peace in Europe and solidarity with Ukraine," he said. Moscow hit back by branding him an "extremist," seizing his Russian factories in 2024, and launching a cyber-attack that threw his business into turmoil.
"For more than two decades, I have defended myself and my assets against sustained aggression by the Russian state," Shefler said. "This latest attempt to seize my assets in Latvia is not merely an attack on me and my business, it is an assault on Latvia’s economy and on the sovereignty of the European Union."
Šķēle rejects claims as baseless
Šķēle, 68, who served two stints as Latvia's leader in the 1990s, has blasted the claims as "baseless" and "slanderous." Defending their September meeting, Šķēle said: "Our September meeting was a brainstorm, essentially weighing Mr Shefler's options to keep the company solvent rather than anyone pushing him out. There was no threat, just evaluation of admittedly a very challenging situation the company and its creditors are facing."
He added: "No threat or hostility has been intended or expressed from my side either on September 1 or on any other occasion." Šķēle dismissed the intelligence file as part of Shefler's "broader personal strategy to redefine himself as a victim of circumstances rather than admit his own business challenges." Latvia's VDD spy agency confirmed it has received the dossier and is currently "evaluating" the allegations.
