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According to English newsmagazine, The independent, "As Russians woke to nurse their New Year's Day hangovers, they may have found that the dog that bit them had doubled in price overnight. A government clampdown took effect yesterday banning the sale of vodka at less than 89 roubles – about £1.80 – for half a litre."  President Medvedev, calling alcohol abuse in Russia a "national tradegy", has vowed to decrease Russia's rate of alcohol consumption.

No alcohol for me!

The Independent goes on to say that, "Prince Vladimir, one of the founders of the first Russian state, is even said to have rejected Islam as a state religion because Russians could not do without alcohol. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev raised alcohol prices and restricted selling hours. Although alcohol sales dropped and life expectancy spiked, the flirtation with prohibition was both expensive... and unpopular. Some say it cost the last Soviet leader his popular support."  Naturally, Vladimir Putin decided not to touch this issue during his reign as President or Russia.

So what's the big deal one might ask?  Even if you're a major alcoholic or college student, spending 38 extra Roubles for a half-litre of vodka really shouldn't be a problem.  38 Roubles is only $1.29 in the US.  If you were working for minimum wage at $7.25 per hour (US), this would work out to be only 10.7 extra minutes of work.  10 more minutes working at Starbucks or writing for Pinkomenace.com won't kill you, seriously.

But the key phrase in the last paragraph is, of course, "unless you're an alcoholic". Apparently in Russia this is quite common.  According to Time.com's aricle, "Russians have roughly doubled their alcohol intake every decade since the 1970s. State statistics show that today, 38% of Russians between the ages of 20 and 39 suffer from alcoholism — between the ages of 40 and 59, that number jumps to 55% - 55%!!!!.  Alcohol poisoning kills an average of 30,000 people in Russia each year, twice the number of Soviets who died during the 10-year war with Afghanistan in the '80s."

Oh, did we mention that in Russia you could buy alcohol at kiosks like this one before Medvedev's new law took effect?

Accoring to the Nationaly Institute of Health, in Russia, every man, woman and child consumes the equivalent of 4.8 gallons (18 liters) of pure rubbing alcohol per year.  Assuming babies and young children don't generally drink in Russia (let's hope this a valid assumption), and women drink less than men (again this can't be verified), Russian men are drinking much more than this per capita.*

Even more disturbing is that vodka, at it's strongest, is generally 80 proof, or 40% alcohol by volume.  Doing a little quick algebra, Vodka x .4 = 4.8 gallons of pure Alcohol.  In other words, if you solve for this equation, the amount of vodka drank isn't merely 4.8 gallons, it's 12 gallons per person!  Per year!  Eliminating children, factoring in that women would drink less, and assuming there's at least some Russians who don't drink, that would make the average drinker's intake much higher.  Assuming this roughly doubles intake for drinkers, that's more like 24 gallons of Vodka per year.  Or 8 ounces - a full cup - of pure, high proof vodka every day.  A shot is generally 1 ounce or less, this means that your typical Russian man has about 8 shots of vodka per day.

So what can we learn from this?  My two conclusions are as follows.  First of all, if you encounter a Russian in your daily life, it may be best to assume he has had something to drink that day.  Steer clear of him if at all possible.  Secondly, it's possible that Russians would be able to accomplish much more if they drank less.  If someone like Vladimir Putin were able to channel this energy, Russia might again be a force to be reckoned with.

Remember, 2 carbon atoms!

Update 1/30/10:

According to a 1/29/10 Pravda article, "About 49 percent of Russians say that they drink vodka once a month, 37 percent – twice a month and 14 percent – once a week."  Given the information revealed and thoroughly referenced in this article, either Russians lie often about their drinking habits, or nearly everything researched in this article is wrong.

Given that the last line in this article is, "One liter of vodka is a lethal dose for a person weighing 70 kilograms", we would tend to lean toward the lying Russian theory.  In a society where facts like this are apparently common knowledge, alcohol consumption is certainly more than a "once a month" affair. 

*Considering rubbing alcohol is generally isopropyl alcohol, not the tastier and less-dangerous ethyl alcohol Americans generally enjoy, this is quite disturbing.  Pinkomenace.com reccomends not drinking isopropyl alcohol or worse-yet methyl alcohol...