French distillery Pernod Ricard, maker of Absolut vodka and Jameson Irish whiskey, is stepping up exports to Russia to insure itself against possible retaliation by Moscow to Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. "We are importing as much as we can for our [Russian] inventories because an embargo or retaliatory action could happen any time," the company's chief executive, Pierre Pringuet, told the paper earlier this week.