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MOSCOW, Dec 20, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Russian history buff Alexander Nikishin thinks the Russian capital needs a museum to celebrate the history of the national drink, vodka.
Nikishin has collected more than 40,000 bottles, books, posters and other items, including an empty vodka bottle shaped like a bust of Gen. Mikhail Skobelev, hero of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Moscow Times estimates that bottle may be worth $80,000 alone.
Hundreds of items from Nikinshin's extensive collection are on display until Jan. 13 in a rented corner of the Decorative, Applied and Folk Art Museum in Moscow. There already are vodka museums in St. Petersburg and two Russian towns of Uglich and Myshkin.
Nikishin found an ally in the nation's agriculture minister, who asked Moscow officials to find a building for a vodka museum. But officials said no suitable commercial space was available in central Moscow.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
