Russia's Anti-Alcohol Campaign Proves Slow-Going
MOSCOW, February 2 (Itar-Tass) -- Analysts say that the latest campaign against heavy drinking, declared by the Russian authorities last year, has proved very slow-going so far. They blame this on the population's "legal nihilism" and, largely, on the activity of the strong pro-alcohol lobby.
"We do not sell alcohol and tobacco to those under 18 years of age!" This warning can be seen inside practically all retail trade outlets. However, an experiment staged last Sunday in seventeen towns within the Moscow Region indicated that practically none of the alcohol and tobacco salespeople took the trouble of checking how old the teenage buyers really were.
The news daily Novyie Izvestia says some 800 persons took part in the experiment. Police operatives were monitoring the retailers from cars parked nearby.
A seller may be fined 3,000-4,000 rubles (100-120 dollars) for selling alcohol to underage persons and the retail outlet could get fined 30,000-40,000 rubles. However, this will most likely only stop a few outlets - in the town of Ramenskoye, four out of the five shops tested sold alcohol to teenagers. In Solnechnogorsk, children managed to buy alcoholic drinks in all six of the shops that were tested.
The media acknowledges that the anti-alcohol crusade is bogged down. The news daily Vedomosti, for instance, says that none of the laws in President Dmitry Medvedev's new anti-alcohol strategy has been adopted yet. The legislators' drafts have been dismissed by the government as not being well thought-out. As for the cabinet's own bills, none have been drafted so far.
After a meeting of the State Council on September 11, 2009, the president authorized a list of measures to fight alcoholism and made Prime Minister Vladimir Putin responsible for executing them. On the list of the proposed steps were bills imposing restrictions on the consumption of beer and light alcohol that were submitted to the State Duma. They tighten punishment for those who sell alcohol to underage persons, restrict the possibility of selling beer and cocktails near sports and medical establishments, as well as in street kiosks, and also introduce extra restrictions on advertising. Some laws were to be presented to the State Duma by November 1, 2009, and others, by December 1, 2009.
Not a single law has been adopted to this day, although their authors are legislators from the ruling party, United Russia. A source close to top officials in the State Duma has said that most of the initiatives United Russia legislators proposed will be simply included in the package of anti-alcohol amendments that the government will submit to the lower house itself, but the presentation has already been postponed three times.
A member of the State Duma's economics committee, Viktor Zvagelsky, blames the permanent delays on opposition by lobbyists in the government, who will surely stand to lose from restrictions on alcohol consumption. The official in the Kremlin points to the same cause. He is certain that there is a pro-alcohol lobby in the State Duma.
President Dmitry Medvedev declared another crusade against booze back in August 2009. He promised to go about the matter "resolutely but accurately," without "foolish bans." The measures the state has taken over the past few years to reduce alcohol consumption have not changed the situation in the country, he said.
"Let us be frank, alcoholism in our country is a national disaster," Medvedev acknowledged.
At the end of last December, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a Concept of the State Policy for Reducing the Scale of Alcohol Abuse and Prevention of Alcoholism among the Population of the Russian Federation for the Period Ending in 2020. This twelve-page document promised a costly program of preventive measures against alcohol abuse and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. All distillers of bootleg alcohol are to be ousted from the market.
As follows from the concept, the war on alcohol will be a two-phase one. The first stage is to end in 2012 with an expected net effect of a 15-percent reduction in the per capital consumption of alcohol. At the end of the second phase, in 2020, alcohol consumption is to be reduced by another 55 percent; from the current 18 liters of pure alcohol consumed per person annually, to eight liters.
For a start, a firm minimum price of alcohol will be set. One half-liter bottle of vodka cannot cost less than 89 rubles - roughly an equivalent of three dollars. The sale of alcohol is to be prohibited from 9:00PM to 11:00AM.
All alcohol will be banned from street kiosks and even shops near schools, hospitals, and sports facilities.
The most radical changes are to be expected as of 2013. The government vows that over the next seven years it will do away with all producers of bootleg alcohol, which at the moment accounts for nearly half of the market. Administrative and criminal punishment is to be established for the manufacture and marketing of bootleg alcohol products.
Lastly, the state will be campaigning and persuading. Under the concept, each region will have its own programs against heavy drinking, adjusted to the local specifics. Physical culture and healthy lifestyles will be advertised in every possible way.
"The adoption of the concept is tantamount to a breakthrough in the government's understanding of how serious the problem of alcohol addiction in Russia today really is," the daily Izvestia quotes Darya Khalturina, a co-chairman of the Russian Coalition for the Control of Alcohol. "First of all, it points to the need for re-targeting consumption from mostly hard liquor to a more civilized drinking tradition - that based on wine and beer. Secondly, some really effective measures are going to be employed - control of alcohol prices, higher excise duties, and a crackdown on the producers of illegal alcohol, all relying on a firm legal backup."
Khalturina voiced satisfaction by saying "many attempts to push through other versions of this important document, by both trans-national alcohol producers and representatives of the domestic alcohol lobby, have ended in failure."
The Internet magazine Novaya Politika believes that keeping the alcohol lobby at bay will be the most daunting task.
"There are quite a few loopholes in our legislation that can be used to keep alcohol distilling and marketing rates as high as they are right now," the publication says.
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