Miller Time on Hold in Russia

So its not an outright prohibition but the Russian government wants its citizens to drink less, a lot less. President Dmitry Medvedev want to curb what he call his country’s “colossal drinking” by 72% through price controls and a crackdown on bootlegged vodka. The government will regulate vodka prices, banning stores from charging less than 89 rubles ($3.07) for a half-liter bottle of vodka as of Jan. 1. And the government will ban the sale of cheap alcohol in bottle and cans larger than 330 milliliters (11 ounces).

They may want to start by telling their police to drink off duty

Alcohol consumption in Russia should fall to as low as 5 liters per person a year by 2020 from about 18 liters now, according to the plan published on the Alcohol Market Regulation Federal Service’s Web site today. The World Health Organization estimates 8 liters as an “accepted volume of consumption,” according to the service.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced prohibition of alcohol in the country to crack down on Russia’s epic drinking. The restrictions spurred the production of moonshine, while pharmacies saw a spike in sales of rubbing alcohol.  Last July, Medvedev praised Gorbachev’s campaign.

It really is a serious problem, with more than 23,000 people dying from random alcohol poisoning currently in Russia and “More than 75,000 people are dying from illnesses caused by excessive drinking.”

So what can we learn from this?  Be really careful when drinking anything labeled alcohol when visiting Russia.  And that if drinking were to become an Olympic sport, then the gold medal match would come down to the Russians and the Irish.