you say potato, I say pomme

MOSCOW (AFP) - Two top vodka brands exchanged angry accusations on Friday over which had the lucrative right to call itself Russia's best vodka, with the famous Stolichnaya brand refuting charges from Russian Standard that it was not really a Russian beverage at all.

"Stolichnaya brand vodka is not authentically Russian," Russian Standard, a consumer goods and financial services company that produces a vodka by the same name, said in a statement distributed to media.

It said the Stolichnaya-branded vodka sold outside of Russia was not the vodka known in Russia under that name for more than 500 years but was instead a concoction produced in Russia and shipped in bulk and under a different name to Latvia where it was then bottled and labeled.

These vodkas "were based on different recipes than the recipe for Stolichnaya vodka," the statement said, adding that "Stolichnaya's marketing messages are inaccurate and misleading to vodka consumers" and that "Stolichnaya is not authentically Russian."