How Putin Helped P&G Sell Soap
Posted in: UncategorizedJust after he retired from the KGB, but well before he was leader of Russia or involved in a tense global standoff over Ukraine, Vladimir Putin played a role in helping Procter & Gamble Co. sell soap.
Mr. Putin, then deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, was part of a government leadership team that helped P&G get a foothold in Russia, which has since grown into a business that Bernstein Research estimates at $3.4 billion, or 4% of the company’s global sales.
In his 2012 book “Russian Tide,” former P&G Chairman-CEO John Pepper recounts meetings with Mr. Putin during 1992 visits to Russia as he was working to open the market for P&G and other U.S. businesses. Mr. Pepper was part of a group sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, founded by David Abshire, who was a member of P&G’s board. Mr. Pepper’s son David — then just out of Yale and now a candidate for Ohio attorney general — was employed with CSIS at the time.
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