Leaving aside the political statement, or the taking of one side or another:
HOW THE HELL CAN THEY EVEN DO THAT???!?
Imagine that...I mentioned something similar years ago when blactivists in gubmint were voting the shares in pension funds they oversaw to further their agendas.
In PA liquor stores are state run, so this nonsense came from Harrisburg.
In PA, a central state government organization decides what hard alcohol is allowed to be sold in stores (all of which are state run), they also control a monopoly of what brokers are allowed to purchase booze in the state. There was once a claim that they maintained the monopoly because it gave the state better buying power to get better prices, but enough residents have since gone to nearby states and seen that this was a lie. Basically it is Russia.
It's an empty gesture and the fact these government employees thought it was worth a press release is just one more reason to privatize the liquor stores. Russian standard was one of the better vodka options available in state stores. By the time it reaches the stores, the Russians had already been paid for weeks if not months. Meanwhile what happens to the thousands of cases of vodka already bought and in warehouses?
This is a remnant of Prohibition.
Yeh! And never mind that the small businesses will take another hit!
Simply because they can and they have taken on the authority to make it happen. Their Emergency Covid powers grant them unlimited power to do stupid things without question. Especially knee jerk, liberal minded things with no regard for the unintended circumstances that may result from their hastiness. Supply and demand be damned! The regulating governmental authority has spoken and the market will just have to adjust to it because clearly they know more about what you want and/or need than you do.