Smells Like Yukos

This is a rather strange story from Moscow News, but it seems that one Russian businessman wants to express his solidarity with Mikhail Khodorkovsky by producing a perfume line bearing the Yukos company name.  It will be tough to sell more of this stuff than Putinka vodka, but I’m sure it smells much nicer.

The owner of a perfumery firm has filed an appeal to register the trademark of the embattled Yukos oil firm for a new line of perfumes.

Mikhail Sannikov, owner of the Sunny perfumeries production, wants to use the green and yellow triangle with the word YUKOS as the trademark for perfumes and at the same time express his solidarity with the jailed Yukos owner, former billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

“It’s a good name, I like it,” Sannikov told Vedomosti daily in an interview.

Sannikov says he realizes that the Yukos perfume line would have a narrow target audience, but making money does not come first in this particular project.

The main aim of the Yukos brand launch is to declare its owner’s political position: according to Sannikov, the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a major negative influence on the business climate of Russia.