The office of the Russian Patent Service has received an avalanche of applications for the registration of trademarks of vodka and other alcohols playing up the name of Dmitry Medvedev, after his nomination as presidential candidate by the United Russia party with the endorsement of President Vladimir Putin on December 10.

The presidential election is scheduled to be held on March 2, after which Putin will leave office after serving two consecutive terms. Russian constitution bans him to run for the third term.

Two days after Medvedev’s nomination, the Kauffman distillery applied to register the vodka ‘Volodya I Medvedi’ (Volodya and the Bears), an apparent reference to the diminutive version of Putin’s first name and Medvedev’s surname, which comes from the Russian word ‘medved’ meaning ‘bear,’ prestigious Russian business daily Vedomosti said on Friday.

Bear is also the symbol of Putin’s United Russia party which won a landslide victory in the State Duma Parliamentary elections, earlier this month.

Vedomosti said the Kauffman was not the first distillery to apply to launch vodka brands featuring Medvedev’s surname, adding another company had requested permission to register the brands ‘Tsar Medved’ (Tsar Bear) and ‘Medvedevka.’

According to media reports, some far-sighted vodka and alcohol distributors had already staked their bets on Medvedev two years ago when he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister.

The Medvedevka name was initially registered by Marisa-torg, and subsequently sold on several times to other distributors. The head of the MBA marketing programme at the Moscow International Higher Business School MIRBIS, Yevgeny Boichenko told the newspaper that any reference to well-known politicians promises greater revenues for a range of products, but especially alcohol.

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