After obtaining a photo of then–US vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sipping Pepsi, PepsiCo executive Donald Kendall was able to capture the attention of the Soviet people, and in 1972 he negotiated a cola monopoly in the USSR and Pepsi became the first US consumer product to be produced and marketed in the Soviet Union. Due to Soviet restrictions on transporting roubles abroad, PepsiCo struck a barter deal whereby Stolichnaya vodka would be exchanged for Pepsi syrup.
In 1989, amidst declining vodka sales, PepsiCo bartered for 2 new Soviet oil tankers, 17 decommissioned submarines (for $150,000 each), a frigate, a cruiser and a destroyer, which they could in turn sell for non-Soviet currency. The oil tankers were leased out through a Norwegian company, while the other ships were immediately sold for scrap. A deal struck the following year would’ve seen Pepsi acquire 85 ships worth nearly $3 billion over the next 10 years, but it only acquired 10 additional ships before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The deal was renegotiated with the former nations of the USSR, and included receiving cheese from Russia to supply its Pizza Hut locations and receiving double-hulled tankers from Ukraine. These deals also originated an erroneous factoid which claims that, after acquiring the Soviet fleet, PepsiCo briefly possessed one of the most powerful navies in the world. In actuality, the only warships acquired by PepsiCo were “small, old, obsolete, unseaworthy vessels”.
What the hell? You got some more info on that (im curious)
Wikipedia’s got some info: