1.   Because merchants paid enormous sums for the right to sell vodka, the imperial government had long been prepared to overlook their chicanery at the point of sale.

2.   Across the courtyard, a maze of footpaths tramped through unmown weeds, another family sells bootleg vodka from another clapboard house.

3.   But for these pensioners selling vodka in Moscow, the concern was less about financial markets than about just getting enough money for daily necessities.

4.   But Russian distillers are not averse to letting small operators sell their vodka abroad.

5.   Heublein, a unit of Grand Metropolitan PLC of Britain, sells Smirnoff vodka in the United States.

6.   None of this is terribly exciting, unless you happen to be selling vodka.

7.   Under Dudayev, Chechnya is one of the few parts of Russia where it is illegal to sell vodka.

8.   According to ITAR-Tass, the tax officials were considering the possibility of selling the vodka to Chelyabinsk residents, with the revenues going to the local budget.

9.   Authorities said rebels had planned to sell the vodka to federal troops, Interfax said.

10.   But enterprising kiosk owners built tiny add-on rooms so they could then pretend they were full-fledged stores, and thereby sell vodka.