By Lucy Papachristou
(Reuters) – Russian lawmakers in the Vologda region north of Moscow have proposed restricting the sale of alcohol to a two-hour period on weekdays, as the local governor pointed to “horrific” mortality figures.
Vologda governor Georgy Filimonov said that 71% of deaths of working-age men in the region were tied to alcohol consumption, including maladies like liver cirrhosis and heart ailments.
“In one year, the incidence of alcoholism has risen by 30%. This is a horrific picture,” he said in an eight-minute address posted to his Telegram channel, painting the bill as an urgent public health intervention.
“We cannot stand by indifferently while our fellow countrymen die,” he said. “If the population is dying out, and dying out like in a war, who will come in place of them?”
The bill, under consideration by the local legislature, would allow shops to sell alcohol only between noon and 2 p.m. on weekdays, with weekend and holiday sales unaffected. If adopted, the restrictions would take effect on March 1 next year.
Demographic issues have come to the forefront in Russia as it wages war in Ukraine, while official data released last month showed Russia’s birth rate had slid to its lowest in a quarter of a century.
Russians’ average life expectancy stood at 73.1 years last year, according to official statistics. Eurostat data from the same year shows citizens of European Union countries will live an average of 81.5 years.
Russia traditionally has some of the highest rates of alcohol consumption in Europe, according to the World Health Organization. Russian and Soviet leaders have previously tried to change drinking habits, with limited success.
“Irreparable damage is being done to the health of future generations, to the economy, to our public, social and cultural life,” Filimonov said. “And all this is happening under conditions of peace, not on the front line.”
The Kremlin on Wednesday that similar restrictions were not under consideration on a federal level after a deputy in the lower house of parliament told a state media agency that he supported a gradual limiting of alcohol sales across Russia.
In 2010, Vladmir Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, approved restrictions on alcohol sales and production, higher taxation and curbs on advertising.
Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s last emperor, introduced prohibition in 1914 amid the outbreak of World War I, banning the sale of hard liquor in most establishments.
Josef Stalin repealed prohibition in 1925 and reintroduced the state vodka monopoly system to boost government coffers.
(Reporting and writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
