Russian Forest Aromat

After I had a rather positive experience with "Krasnaya Moskva" as the men's version from the brand Nóvaya Zaryá, I actually wanted to approach the "Russian Forest" from the same label. After all, it seemed to be doing excellently with an average rating of almost 80%. It's just a pity that to this day there is neither a comment nor any information about the contents of this fragrance - not even on the Nóvaya Zaryá website.

And unfortunately, there is no tester available at the supermarket for Eastern European specialties, where I had previously bought the "Red Muscovite" quite cheaply.
OK - for the blind purchase of the 85ml Eau de Cologne, I only had to invest a slim 1.99 € - one can overlook that with eyes and nose closed.

However, the label on the bottle should have served as a warning. It is supposed to evoke the image of a forest, but what is actually depicted is more of a rather young deciduous forest, like one that could be found in a small-town park or around the corner from me. Personally, I imagine a Russian forest to be more of a lush coniferous vegetation deep in Siberia.

Accordingly, after application, one is not greeted by a fresh, dark green coniferous scent with spruce or pine notes, but rather by a sweet, light green synthetic smell that is closely related to the cheapest kind of woodruff. There is no trace of woodiness or anything like that.
With a bit of tolerance, that might just about work, but in between, I perceive some harsh, musty notes that remind me of outdated chocolate. Very strange overall. At first, I thought the perfumer or chemist was trying to create an olfactory reference to forest floor or, at best, truffles. In contrast to "Krasnaya Moskva," however, this Eau de Cologne lasts only extremely briefly. After half an hour, "Russian Forest" is so close to the skin that one can seriously go out in public again.

Since this all seemed too suspicious to me, I called the importer out of curiosity and learned that my "Russian Forest" was not produced by Nóvaya Zaryá, but rather comes from a filler in Ukraine (!).

I almost really worried about the Russian forest, which seemed to be suffering from industrial areas and unfiltered lignite emissions. In this respect, I am a bit relieved, but I still wonder if the Ukrainians are trying to take revenge on their eastern neighbors with this? That could almost be political dynamite!

So let’s hope that "Russian Forest" doesn’t lead to further tensions between the two adversaries. So please don’t tell anyone about this ... especially not any Russians - then I can overlook and sniff this small but nonetheless annoying mispurchase.