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Russia has 2.3 million alcoholics

Luke Harding

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 report, Russia's chief medical officer, Gennadi Onishenko, on Thursday 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 homemade vodka, Mr. Onishenko said. The figures provoked a gloomy inquisition 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 per cent of murders, 42 per cent of suicides and 52.6 per cent of traumatic accidents. The World Health Organisation 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. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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