Alcohol consumption in Russia remains among the highest in the world. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, annual per capita consumption of alcohol in Russia was about 15.76 litres of pure alcohol, the fourth-highest volume in Europe. Another general trait of Russian alcohol consumption pattern was the high volume of spirits compared with other alcoholic drinks (such as beer or red wine). Russia currently implements a variety of anti-alcoholism measures (banning spirits and beer trade at night, raising taxes, banning the advertising of alcohol). According to medical officials, these policies have resulted in a considerable fall of alcohol consumption volumes, to 13.5 litres by 2013, with wine and beer overtaking spirits as the main source of beverage alcohol. These levels are comparable with European Union averages. Alcohol producers claim that falling legal consumption is accompanied by growth in sales of illegally produced drink. High volumes of alcohol consumption have serious negative effects on Russia's social fabric and bring political, economic and public health ramifications. Con tent was c reated by GSA Content Generat or Demover sion!
Legend holds that the tenth-century Russian prince Vladimir the Great rejected Islam as a state religion for the country because of its prohibition of alcohol. Historically, alcohol has been tolerated or even encouraged as a source of revenue. By 1859 vodka, the national drink, was the source of more than 40% of the government's revenue. In 1909 average alcohol consumption was said to be 11 bottles per capita per year. At the beginning of World War I, prohibition was introduced in the Russian Empire, limiting the sale of hard liquor to restaurants. After the Bolshevik Party came to power, they made repeated attempts to reduce consumption in the Soviet Union. However, by 1925, vodka had reappeared in state-run stores. Joseph Stalin reestablished a state monopoly to generate revenue. Yuri Andropov, Sales and Konstantin Chernenko all tried to stem alcoholism. The campaign was temporarily successful in reducing per capita alcohol consumption and improving quality-of-life measures such as life expectancies and crime rates, but it was deeply unpopular among the population and it ultimately failed.
In 2006, a new alcohol excise stamp known as the EGAIS system was introduced, allowing to identify every bottle sold in Russia through a centralized data system. In 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nearly doubled the minimum price of a bottle of vodka in an effort to combat the problem. In 2012, a national ban on Sales (https://feelingcutelol.com) of all types of alcoholic beverages from 11 p.m. 8 a.m. was introduced to complement regional bans. The Russian government has proposed reducing the state minimum price of vodka in reaction to the 2014-15 Russian financial crisis. In December 2016, 78 people in Irkutsk died in a mass methanol poisoning. Medvedev reacted by calling for a ban on non-traditional alcoholic liquids like the bath lotion involved in this case, stating that "it's an outrage, and we need to put an end to this". A study by Russian, British and French researchers published in The Lancet scrutinized deaths between 1990 and 2001 of residents of three Siberian industrial towns with typical mortality rates and determined that 52% of deaths of people between the ages of 15 and 54 were the result of complications of alcohol use disorder.
Lead researcher Professor David Zaridze estimated that the increase in alcohol consumption since 1987 has caused an additional three million deaths nationwide. In 2007, Gennadi Onishenko, the country's chief public health official, Amazon Fashion voiced his concern over the nearly threefold rise in alcohol consumption over the past 16 years; one in eight deaths was attributed to alcohol-related diseases, playing a major role in Russia's population decline. Men are particularly hit hard: according to a U.N. National Human Development Report, Russian males born in 2006 had a life expectancy of just over 60 years, or 17 years fewer than western Europeans, while Russian females could expect to live 13 years longer than their male counterparts. In June 2009, the Public Chamber of Russia reported over 500,000 alcohol-related deaths annually, noting that Russians consume about 18 litres (4.0 imp gal; 4.8 US gal) of spirits a year, more than double the 8 litres (1.8 imp gal; 2.1 US gal) that World Health Organization experts consider dangerous.