Wetherspoons has become the latest hospitality business to announce it will no longer be selling drinks produced in Russia.
The pub chain said that bottles of Baltika Lager have now been removed from its 870 pubs.
The beer is brewed in St Petersburg, the birthplace of Vladimir Putin, who has launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
The drinks are now being returned to the distributor.
A Wetherspoon pub in Manchester city centre. Credit: Unsplash
Northern bar group Arc Inspirations, which operates Box Bar, Manahatta and Banyan, said last week that it would be dropped all Russian-produced vodka from its bars.
ADVERTISEMENT
Russia has also been banned from competing in several major sporting events.
J.D. Wetherspoon said in a statement: “In light of the situation in Ukraine we just felt that we could not stock it anymore.
“As of today all those beers won’t be available in any Wetherspoons pub and either have been or are in the process of being returned to the Carlsberg distributor.
“We are not implying in any way that anyone involved with the brewery is directly involved with what’s going on but we thought in light of the current situation our pubs don’t want to be serving Russian beers.”
Featured image: J.D. Wetherspoon
Trending
Davina McCall asks fans to ‘say a prayer’ as she undergoes brain surgery
Daisy Jackson
Davina McCall has revealed she is undergoing surgery for a ‘quite big’ brain tumour.
The presenter and TV personality has shared a video on Instagram via her partner Michael Douglas updating fans on her diagnosis and asking them to ‘say a prayer’.
Davina, 57, said that the benign brain tumour was discovered during a health scan which she ‘thought she was going to ace’.
The 14mm colloid cyst tumour is rare, with only three in a million diagnoses, and ‘needs to come out because if it grows it would be bad’, she said in the pre-recorded video.
Michael shared the video to say that his partner would be ‘off grid’ while she recovers, adding: “She is in great shape and in very good hands.
“I’ll do the odd update from her account here for anyone interested. I’m sure she’ll read all the comments when she’s able to so feel free to send love. The support of people is amazingly powerful. Have a great day everyone. Michael xxx”
It’s expected that she will need to spend at least nine days in hospital following the surgery, a craniotomy that involves removing part of the skull to access the brain to take out the cyst.
Davina said in a video where she’s smiling bravely througout: “I’m handing the reins over to my surgeon, he knows what he’s doing and I’m going to do the getting better bit after. I’ll see you on the other side.”
Man United legend Eric Cantona stuns Manchester artists with surprise visit to GRIT Studios
Danny Jones
Artists working at a Manchester studio were left speechless by a recent surprise visit from none other than Man United legend Eric Cantona.
The former United forward’s love for the city has never waned no matter how many years have gone by and as a lover of all things art, be it music, painting, acting or what he did with a football, he never fails to engage with local culture whenever he’s here.
He may not be based here anymore but the Frenchman – who knows a thing or two about art given his past acting jobs, newfound music career and previous showcases – still pays plenty of visits to 0161, including a recent unannounced one.
Cantona was back in the city centre this week to pay GRIT Studios resident Michael Browne, the artist who he collaborated with to create his National Football Museum exhibition last year, but the one thing Browne didn’t do was let the other people working in their city centre location he was coming.
Credit: GRIT Studios Manchester (supplied)
To be fair, anyone would double-take if they saw Eric Cantona walk into a room, so this was quite a memorable occasion for the unsuspecting artists.
After working on 2023’s From Moss Side to Marseille with Browne, the 58-year-old has been reimmersing himself in the world of Manchester art and there aren’t many places that epitomise that than GRIT, who are based in Stockport and from their second studio at Great Northern Warehouse.
Landing in Manchester from Paris, Cantona arrived in the late morning and ended up staying for over an hour, taking time to meet a number of artists and tour the space with co-founder John Macaulay.
Clearly impressed with their work and genuinely enthused by the sense of community within the local grassroots art scene, it was a special visit for everyone involved.
John, a die-hard Man United fan who has seen the Red Devils play in 25 countries before going on to set up GRIT Studios and much-loved Art Battle MCR with his wife Sophie, said: “It’s full circle for me having watched Eric play all over the world, it’s true honour that he’s flown in to see our talented artists.”
Artists spent time chatting with Eric and talking through their creative processes; those present included mosaic artist, Francis Thorrington, plein air (outdoor) artist, Sketch MCR – a.k.a. Ben Rock – painters Jodie Silverman, Helen Davies and Sophie Macaulay, as well as woodworker Gus Riddell.
Also a fellow United fan, Francis said he simply “couldn’t stop smiling the whole time” after Cantona described his work as wonderful.
Eric looked at home when he picked up and started strumming Chris Pollin’s hand-made guitars, which are handcrafted from driftwood and take hundreds of hours of work.
The enigmatic sports personality turned pop philosopher and cultural figure’s final message was that it was refreshing to see a place where “art was for everyone” not just the elite.
As for Browne, he is sworn to secrecy on his next project but let’s just say you can expect some big announcements in the coming weeks. As for GRIT, you can visit one of their open days this Saturday, 16 November and make sure to check out their Stockport studio if you’re in the area.
Daisy Jackson -
3rd March 2022 
