And there was no decent drink with a communist brand that tasted remotely close. Every available drink was absolute shit. As a kid I'm not gonna care about a communist utopia, I'm gonna care that Coke tastes nice, I'm 6, and nothing I find anywhere tastes remotely as good.

As for sanctions, no, as a communiest sympathizer, you should probably read Kruschev's biography made from his tape recordings. He deals extensively with importing foreign goods and the problems he had.

tl;dr foreign currency, not sanctions. If you don't make things other countries wanted, they won't pay you, so you have none of their money to buy the things they make.

That's why a lot of commie countries (second world) exported raw materials to the first world and there was interest in their manufactured goods only from the third world. Why buy eastern european Z80 clone automations and PLCs when their productions can't even match your demands?

Let alone the problems DDR had with their silicon fabs and Z80 clones (made after USSR clones).

But sure, attack the brand, not the idea i'm spelling out.

If there was no Coke, then I wouldn't have had the displeasure of not having Coke. Nice take, let everybody suffer for the common good.