Bormotukha (Russian бормотуха) and chernila (literally ink) were colloquial names for cheap flavored fortified wines, commonly named "port wine" or "vermouth", that were produced in the Soviet Union.[1] [2] Examples of bormotukha were Agdam (named after a city in Azerbaijan)[3] [4] and (colloquially called "Three Axes").[5]
During Mikhail Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign, production of legal bormotukha brands stopped, and the corresponding brands didn't recover.[6]
In 2010 a Russian businessman tried to register the trademark "Solntsedar". The application was rejected with the rationale: "The applied designation reproduces the name of a cheap surrogate alcoholic drink, widespread in the USSR from the late 50s to the mid-80s, which received a household name as an image and sign of the era of stagnation, and therefore registration of this designation as a trademark will be contrary to public interests."[4]
In Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko declared production of beer to be an element of "national food security", because beer "pulls people away from drinking bormotukha and hard liquors".[7]