The minimum price has only been introduced on 1 January 2010, but has
been raised continuously since then. This new measure however is
expected to affect only one in ten legally sold bottles of vodka in
Russia: most of the bottles already cost more than the new minimum
price.
Struggle against deadly alcoholism
Along with vodka, many more alcoholic drinks will to go up in price.
This way, the Russian government wants to decrease the number ofalcohol-related deaths in the world’s biggest country.
Each year, more than half a million Russians die as a result of
overconsumption of alcohol. The threshold that the World Health
Organisation considers as “dangerous”, 8 litres of spirits per year, is
effortlessly crossed in Russia, where the average consumption is a
whopping 18 litres.
The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, earlier
concluded that in the nineties, more than 50% of the deaths of Russians
between 15 and 54 had been alcohol-related.
