Another one that is. The former president of the USSR wishes to see reforms, similar to those he brought in during his term of office in the 1980s, aimed at curing the nation’s drunkenness. By closing shops, raising the price of vodka, and burning vineyards (note that it’s debateable whether he was personally responsible for that) his motives then were more to do with raising productivity and preventing workplace injuries than curing alcoholism. The whole thing backfired, of course, resulting in a blow to the economy due to reduced revenues and production switching to the black market.
Gorbachev, himself, incidentally, a borderline teetotaller, recently told a Russian talk show that his anti-alcohol decrees were actually proposed long beforehand during the rule of one of his predecessors. Leonid Brezhnev was apparently pressured both by doctors and politicians to introduce a ‘dry law’, even though he personally believed that Russians couldn’t live without alcohol – he certainly liked a tipple.
According to Gorby, though, something needs to be done, as Russia is destroying itself with 17 to 18 litres of alcohol (that’s *pure* alcohol) per capita. I’m not sure where he gets his figures from, as the World Health Organisation has Russia on about 10.5 litres per head, ranking it way behind many European countries and the UK.
List Of Countries Ranked By Alcohol Consumption.
Russia without vodka? No way, that’s just wrong. . . .
