The entrepreneur behind Vladimir Putin-themed vodka has obtained the copyright to lollipops shaped like Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s trademark braid, RBC Daily reported on Thursday.
The Federal Service for Intellectual Property successfully registered Stanislav Kaufman’s copyright to the Yulkiny Sosulki (Yulia’s Icicles) brand, the businessman told the news outlet.
The production line will comprise five flavors of lollipops, including mint and fruit, all of them shaped like the circular braid traditionally sported by Tymoshenko, the report said.
Children will be the prime target audience, but adults may also be drawn to the treat because of its political subtext, said Kaufman, a marketing expert who expects to sell off the brand rather than produce Yulkiny Sosulki himself.
“Only scum and jerks can do this kind of disgusting thing,” Ukrainian legislator Andrei Pavlovsky, a member of Tymoshenko’s Fatherland parliamentary bloc, told Rusnovosti.ru.
Tymoshenko is currently serving a prison term on charges she says were fabricated by her political nemesis, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
This is not the first politically-themed product from Kaufman, who was behind the Putinka and the Volodya and Medvedi (Volodya and the Bears) vodka brands, considered a reference to President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party, which uses a bear as a mascot.