When Pepsi Owned More Warships Than NATO Countries

Описание: In 1989, in a closed Moscow boardroom, a Soviet admiral sat across from a Pepsi executive.
Between them wasn’t a contract for more soda.
Between them was a fleet of warships.
This video tells the true story of how a soft drink company briefly became the sixth‑largest naval power on Earth — and how that surreal moment revealed the real way empires die.
You’ll discover:
• How Nixon’s 1972 “Pepsi diplomacy” opened the Soviet market
• Why the ruble was essentially Monopoly money outside the USSR
• The 17‑year cola‑for‑vodka barter that made Pepsi a major Soviet creditor
• How a multi‑billion‑dollar debt pushed Moscow to pay with submarines and ships
• Why, for six months, Pepsi owned more warships than many NATO countries
• How the “Pepsi Navy” was quietly sold for scrap in Norway, Turkey and India
• How this deal became the blueprint for the 1990s “Great Sell‑Off” of Soviet assets
• Why the real victors of the Cold War weren’t generals, but corporations and creditors
This isn’t a quirky business anecdote. It’s a case study in how financial pressure, debt and privatization can dismantle a superpower — and how the same playbook is used again and again, from the USSR to modern crises.
If you’re interested in how money, contracts and balance sheets shape history far more than speeches and parades, this episode is for you.

00:00 – An admiral, a Pepsi executive… and a Soviet fleet
01:10 – How “Pepsi diplomacy” began: Nixon, Khrushchev and the first deal
02:40 – The ruble problem: why Soviet money was worthless abroad
04:10 – Cola for vodka: the 17‑year Pepsi–Stolichnaya barter
05:40 – Mid‑80s collapse: oil, Afghanistan and a crumbling economy
07:00 – Pepsi as creditor: billions owed, no hard currency left
08:20 – The offer: submarines, a cruiser, a destroyer for soda debt
09:40 – For six months, Pepsi is the sixth‑largest navy on Earth
11:00 – Scrapping the fleet: how warships became metal and Pepsi cans
12:20 – From anomaly to pattern: the blueprint for the “Great Sell‑Off”
13:40 – Shock therapy, oligarchs and the looting of a superpower
15:00 – Who really won the Cold War: armies vs. accountants
16:10 – The next empire: why sovereignty has become collateral