I missed this thread..... my bad. We haven't heard of any counterfit tire issues, at least in North America. Where the barcode really comes into play is, Schwalbe sells tires through it's global distribution network, but they also sell tires directly to bike manufacturers (OEM product). In the past we have had problems with OEMs buying more tires than they need and then dumping them on the market as an additional revenue/income stream, kind of a hedge on the bicycle industry. Becuase they get such favorable pricing, they can make a pretty good margin even selling to discounters. The barcode was implemented so that we could tell that a) the tire is in fact a Schwalbe, and b) that a tire in the aftermarket was intended for the aftermarket. The barcode tells Schwalbe if the tire was built for OEM or aftermarket and more specifically who they sold the tire to.

The barcode is on the inside of the tire, so it's only visible if the tire is off the rim. As for this specific circumstance in Siberia, if the tire did in fact have a barcode (legitimate Schwalbe merchandise) and the problem was not an anomoly, it's entirely possible that Schwalbe had a problem with a batch of tires that were produced for the distributor that services this region.

The tires couldn't have been exceptionally old, the Green Guard version has only been around for a couple of years. The other possibility is that they weren't stored properly. If the stories are true about the harsh conditions that can exist in Siberia, tires could potentially deteriorate very rapidly if exposed to the elements for an extended period.