 Today's story starts in 1959. Khrushchev, who was the then president of Russia, tears Pepsi Cola for the very first time in his life, falls in love with it immediately and so the very clever CEO of Pepsi jumps on the deal and he manages to get the monopoly to be the only American Cola in Russia. Only problem however is how is Russia going to pay for it because the ruble at this point has absolutely no value outside of the country. But Khrushchev loves to drink so much that they come to a slightly different agreement. Russia agrees to pay Pepsi in vodka. Literally they paid Pepsi Cola in mountains and mountains of vodka which Pepsi would then take back to America, sell it over there and that's how they agreed that they would make back their money. But then in 1980 the Russians invade Afghanistan, the Americans are absolutely furious and they respond by boycotting all Soviet products including the vodka that Pepsi was selling. But by now the Russians have come to love Pepsi Cola so much that they're not prepared to give it up so they come up with another solution. In 1989 the Russians decided that they would pay Pepsi in warships. To be precise they gave them one Soviet cruiser, one frigate, 17 submarines and a handful of oil tankers along with an assortment of a few other things and so Pepsi actually ended up owning its own navy and not just any navy. This was the sixth largest navy in the world at that point. Now as you can imagine the US government was absolutely furious. I mean imagine a private corporation in your own country becoming such a huge naval power that it's bigger than almost every other country in the world and it is independent of you. Which means that you cannot tell them what to do. It's a very scary thought. Eventually of course the US government forced Pepsi into selling their navy to be prepared. The warships weren't really battle worthy. They were pretty useless. They were barely sold for scrap. But for me what was really scary when I read the story for the first time was how easy it is for a private corporation to become a world superpower. It reminded me a little of the East India Company. You know there are such few controls on what countries with big firepower can do to each other. There are even fewer controls, even fewer rules around what private corporations can do. And that my dears is a thought that should be enough to give you nightmares.