Dan Savage’s #DUMPRUSSIANVODKA boycott (particularly Stoli) to protest the government-sanctioned oppression of gays in Russia is in full swing. Should you participate? Or keep guzzling the stuff?

What's the #DUMPRUSSIANVODKA boycott?

Writer and activist Dan Savaage has called for people concerned with gay rights to boycott Stoli vodka (and other vodkas made in Russia) as a way of voicing displeasure with the Russian government's cruel and oppressive turn against gays.

How's it going so far?

This week saw protesters carrying signs that read “Russian vodka: infused with hate” and dumping Russian vodka in the gutter outside New York’s Russian consulate. ACT UP, acting ACT UP-edly, disrupted a Most Original Stoli Guy contest in New York’s soon-to-be-closed twink bar Splash. Gay bars around the globe have joined the cause, refusing to serve their patrons Russian sauce. “G Lounge has decided to take Russian vodkas off of our shelves in favor of equal treatment of the LGBT population worldwide. Stoli, and other Russian vodka brands, take pride in their heritage and past, a past now tarnished by a leader favoring the condemnation and jailing of anyone portraying the LGBT community in a positive light,” began G Lounge’s pledge of solidarity with the cause.

I've heard that not everyone agrees with the boycott.

No—in fact, many influential activists have come out against it, including Russia’s most visible LGBT activist, Nikolai Alekseev, who's said, "The producers, even if they become bankrupt because of the boycott (which is unlikely) will not be able to influence Russian politics and President Putin as well as the decisions of the State Duma."

Doesn't he have a point?

Yes: Stoli is no friend of the Russian government, and the Stoli brand has been banned from being sold in Russia (though other vodkas made by the SPI Group, which owns Stoli, are). Neither its CEO, Val Mendeleev, nor its owner, Yuri Scheffler, currently live in Russia, and the company is based in Latvia—however, in a Sirius interview with Michelangelo Signorile this week, Mendeleev did admit that SPI runs a distillery in Russia and uses Russian goods.

So what is Stoli doing?

Stoli has pushed back on the boycott and asserted its allegiance to the LGBT community. Its website is now topped with a message in a rainbow-colored font: STOLICHNAYA PREMIUM VODKA STANDS STRONG & PROUD WITH THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY AGAINST THE ATTITUDE & ACTIONS OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. In response to Savage’s initial post on the boycott, Stoli sent out a letter detailing its history of LGBT friendliness.

So, in some sense, the boycott is working?

Yes; it's forced Stoli to pledge allegiance and Mendeleev claims that the company is willing to put its money where its lip service is. “I’ve been giving interviews, some of them in Russia, emphasizing our position, that we are upset by the lack of tolerance in Russia and the law limiting rights. But at the same time, we’re now analyzing the best way to influence this in Russia. Probably we will identify a global or local charity that knows better than us how to tackle the issue and influence the issue in Russia. And we’ll support it financially,” he told Signorile.

And pundits across the web have called out the symbolic value of the protest. The Guardian’s Nancy Goldstein reminds us of the impact of past protests:

We've been here before. And we know the power of economic sanctions and boycotts. When Congress finally came around in 1986 and passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (overriding President Ronald Reagan's veto) that banned all new trade and investments in South Africa, other countries followed suit, South Africa's economy went into free fall. Five years later, its Parliament voted to repeal the legal framework for apartheid.

Meanwhile, Kristen Ellingboe wrote on policymic, “[A]ctive activism like this is reminiscent of the grassroots organizing of the civil rights movement and is a proved way to engage the public and bring attention to important issues.”

But surely the boycott isn't the only way to fight this battle?

No: “Now we have to fight Stage 2 simultaneously, channeling that growing ire towards positive change. It also doesn’t hurt see other vodka brands jumping in on the boycott as an opportunity—that only feeds the flames that much more,” says Americablog’s John Aravosis. It’s Stage 2 that is key, I think—opting for Absolut or Tito’s over Stoli is a symbol of solidarity, but it’s a small one, and far from life-altering or law-changing. It’s not much good if people sit on their asses and become uninvolved because they’re so satisfied by their vodka selection.

Furthermore, as Peter Lawrence Kane at the Bold Italic warns, “American gays boycotting vodka is too diffuse a response. We’re certainly not going to dislodge Vladimir Putin, who’s basically in office indefinitely. And boycotts with overly broad targets seldom work, as the forgotten boycott of Arizona after SB 1070 shows.” Describing the boycott a “meaningless gesture,” Co.Exist’s Zak Stone outlines what he sees as three points of wrongheadedness of the boycott: "We’re launching an attack on culture. We’re also ignoring history and reality. We’re going after the wrong thing."

So what more can be done?

We can donate to the Russian LGBT Network. We can boycott the upcoming winter Olympics, or not. We can “make sure you put no money toward Russia at all,” as Harvey Fierstein suggested. But where that last point is concerned, I found this Facebook comment from Animal’s Marina Galperina to be enlightening:

I don't know how much an all out boycott on all Russian products would really work. The people in power can afford to suffer and the people who can't, who are already fucked by their economic system — the Russian people, straight, gay, silent — will suffer like they did in the Leningrad Blockade. The entire Duma voted for that "propaganda" bill, 436 to 0. I don't know the solution. Maybe international outrage, protest memes, action is dangerous but it is necessary but we are here and they are there. I don't know. I don't know yet... But "a starve the rat" tactic seems false. They are all starving already, and the rats will always win.

[Art by Jim Cooke.]