Russia has 2.3m alcoholics*

Luke Harding in Moscow
Thursday April 12, 2007
The Guardian

Russians' consumption of alcohol has tripled since the fall of the
Soviet Union, with the average person now knocking back the equivalent
of 34 litres of vodka a year, new figures show.

In a frank and at times morbid report, Russia's chief medical officer,
Gennadi Onishenko, yesterday admitted that the nation had a serious
alcohol problem.

According to the figures for 2005, Russia has about 2,348,567 registered
alcoholics. As well as polishing off the vodka and beer, Russians also
down quantities of dubious substitutes, such as perfume and home-made
vodka, Mr Onishenko said. The figures provoked a gloomy inquisition
yesterday in the press. Isvestiya ran a front-page photograph of an
attractive bride sitting on a bench next to a comatose drunk - a
frequent sight in Russian parks, doorways and Metro stations. The
paper's headline read: "Drinking Russian style - 34 litres of vodka a year."

Alexsander Nemtsov, an alcohol expert at Moscow's psychiatric research
institute, told Isvestiya: "Every third death in this country is the
direct or indirect result of alcohol consumption."

In Russia alcohol is being linked to 72% of murders, 42% of suicides and
52.6% of traumatic accidents. The WHO rates the country as one of the
most alcoholic in the world. Each year Russia loses 500,000 to 750,000
people through alcohol, to huge economic social and cultural cost,
Professor Nemtsov said.

Alexey Christyakov, a leading narcologist at Moscow's Alco-Med Centre,
said: "The main cause of alcoholism is that over the last 16 years
Russia has gone through a revolution ... many people have seen the
foundations of their lives disappear. They haven't been able to find a
new one."