When Pepsi Owned a Soviet Fleet

For a brief moment in the late 1980s, Pepsi controlled the sixth largest military in the

world. This sounds absolutely insane, but it really happened. The Soviet Union

was desperate for Pepsi products, but their currency was worthless outside their borders.

So they came up with a creative solution. In exchange for three billion dollars

worth of soda, the Soviets traded PepsiCo a fleet of seventeen submarines, a cruiser,

a frigate, and a destroyer. Suddenly, a soft drink company had more naval power

than most countries. Pepsi quickly sold the fleet for scrap metal because running a navy was not exactly

part of their business plan. But for that brief window, they were a legitimate