Yes, I know…but according to History.com, “In 1989, PepsiCo inked a deal with the Soviet Union to trade its cola syrup for Russian vodka—and a decommissioned fleet of rusting warships, including 17 attack submarines…the undersea arsenal briefly acquired by the soft drink conglomerate would have equaled India’s submersible fleet—at the time, the seventh largest in the world.” In addition to the subs, the deal also included 3 warships, a cruiser, frigate and a destroyer.
This leads me to why?! Well at the time of the Cold War, the Russians had acquired a taste for Pepsi since Coca-Cola as well as many other western companies did not want to enter the Russian market. In addition, the Russian’s currency, the ruble was not convertible to dollars. So, they had to barter to get many goods including the syrup for Pepsi! Some called it the “Pepski generation”!
Pepsi had no intentions of using the old fleet but quickly converted it to scrap metal to help fund new bottling plants. So, to be fair, then it really wasn’t a viable navy and according to History.com, “The Soviet Union’s creaky cast-offs weren’t exactly seaworthy. “In any real sense, the story is false,” wrote Paul Musgrave in Foreign Policy. “The Pepsi navy no more conferred military power than a rusting Model T could have been a Formula 1 contender.” Ouch. Cool story though…who knew?!