A Tashkent advertisement for “Your favorite soft drinks.”
A family of Soviet-era soft drinks has suddenly reappeared this summer to quench the thirst of Central Asians.
In Almaty's upmarket Samal district, a retro vending machine is offering a choice of plain fizzy water or three old, syrupy favorites. And in Tashkent, a billboard has popped up around town featuring a matronly Slavic woman standing by an old-fashioned soda fountain.
The Almaty dispenser is a throwback to the carbonated-water dispensers that were found on many a street corner in Soviet times. After the collapse of the USSR these machines largely disappeared or fell into disuse (some still languish, rusting and forlorn, in the occasional back alley or small-town bus station), unable to compete with imported sodas such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
But now the familiar flavors are fighting back, almost literally. The Almaty dispenser is decorated with the figure of a Bolshevik revolutionary on a striking red background. For 40 tenge ($0.30) you can have a Buratino, a caramel-colored concoction named after Russia’s indigenous Pinocchio. A radioactive-green, tarragon-flavored Tarkhun will set you back 50 tenge ($0.35), while a flowery, pear-inspired Duchess costs 60 tenge ($0.40).
Barely a month goes by without someone in Kazakhstan demanding something be prohibited. This time a parliamentary deputy has appealed for a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi:
“It is mandatory that we ensure the health of our citizens and the first thing we should do is carry out tests and prove that these drinks actually pose a health hazard,” MP Berik Bekzhanov told parliament on February 23.
Bekzhanov also suggests banning adverts for the drinks and strictly monitoring the import of beverages containing preservatives. He has singled out American Coca-Cola and Pepsi for particular opprobrium, describing them as “gradual destroyers of the body”:
“These dark brown blends of carcinogens, they are utterly unnatural, and can trigger cancer and lead to leukemia.”
On a more helpful note, Bekzhanov suggested making it obligatory for beverage producers to inform consumers about the presence of potentially harmful artificial sweeteners in their drinks.
By picking on well-known American brands, while failing to mention hugely popular and lower-priced, Soviet-era favorites such as Dyushes and Buratino -- or the many brands of beer available on the local market for that matter -- Bekzhanov could be leaving himself open to charges of tawdry populism.
He certainly has some experience on that front. As one of the leading cheerleaders of efforts in 2010 to have President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed “leader of the nation,” Bekzhanov spared no energy in hailing the head of state’s achievements. This is what he had to say about Nazarbayev in a state-run Khabar news broadcast in October 2009 (via BBC Monitoring):
