Alcoholism among Russians Increased Last Year by Largest Amount Since 2015, ‘Important Stories’ Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Nearly 56 of every 100,000 residents of the Russian Federation were diagnosed as alcoholics or suffering from alcohol-induced psychosis last year, the highest level since 2015, and a 30 percent rise from 2024, strongly suggesting that it is related to the impact of Putin’s war in Ukraine and Russia’s current economic problems, Important Stories says.

            Last year’s dramatic rise reverses the declines between 2010 and 2021 when these alcoholism figures fell by nearly half from 100,000 to 53,000 for the Russian population as a whole, figures from the health ministry and private clinics show (storage.googleapis.com/istories/news/2026/04/16/zabolevaemost-rossiyan-alkogolizmom-i-alkogolnim-psikhozom-virosla-na-tret/index.html, ru.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/15/v-rossii-uvelichilos-chislo-alkogolikov-na-fone-voini-v-ukraine-a118376 and ru.themoscowtimes.com/2024/06/24/v-moskve-zafiksirovali-vzrivnoi-rost-chisla-bolnih-alkogolizmom-a134827).

            Despite Putin’s calls for sobriety, the sales of hard liquor including vodka but not including moonshine or samogon as Russians call it rose to 8.5 liters per person per year, high enough to have a major impact on health (ru.themoscowtimes.com/2025/03/31/rossiyane-ustanovili-8-letnii-rekord-po-potrebleniyu-krepkogo-alkogolya-a159666).

Kazakhstan’s Plan to Expand the Small Aral Sea a ‘Hare-Brained Scheme,' Bayalimov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Astana’s plan to expand the Little Aral Sea, created when the Kokaral Dam was constructed in 2005 and slowed the drying up of what had been part of the larger and dying Aral Sea, Dauletiyar Bayalimov says. Adding to the height of that dam won’t do because there won’t be enough water to fill the Little Aral even to its originally planned level.

            The Kazakh member of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea says that the plans on offer ignore not only massive evaporation but the likelihood that neither Kyrgyzstan nor Uzbekistan will allow enough water to flow in to improve the situation (spik.kz/2595-malyj-aral-200-milliardov-tenge-na-zavedomo-beznadezhnuju-zateju.html).

            Many in Kazakhstan and in the international community see the Little Aral Sea projects as a kind of magical salvation of the problems that have been killing off the Aral Sea as a whole; but such views reflect ignorance or worse and at best ignore the fact that Astana’s plans are nothing more than expensive “hare-brained” schemes.

            It would be far better to try to change the flow of water through the Little Aral so that it would become less saline once again and thus support fishing or to invest in improving the irrigation systems in the country. But those are not the kind of projects that many governments seem to prefer. Instead, they want flashy big ones that will fail, but only after their time.

Northern Sea Route Unlikely to Operate on a Regularly Scheduled Year Around Basis Anytime Soon, ‘Siberian Economist’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Despite the claims of Russian officials, the Northern Sea Route is unlikely to operate on a regularly scheduled year around basis anytime soon, Arseniy Krepov says. Unpredictable weather and Russia’s failure to meet earlier targets and to construct the necessary infrastructure mean such boasts are unlikely to be fulfilled.

            Earlier this month, Igor Tonkovidov, head of the SovKomFlot, told the St. Petersburg Transportation and Logistics Forum in St. Petersburg that the NSR is now operating on a year-round basis. And Rosatom head Aleksey Likhachev said that his icebreakers will soon have the NSR operating in a way “comparable in its regularity and predictability to commuter trains.”

            But those claims are at a minimum overly optimistic and almost certainly unattainable, the Siberian Economy expert says. Weather in the north and in adjoining regions is simply too unpredictable and Russia has not developed the necessary infrastructure on land to support such goals (https://sibmix.com/?doc=20839.

            Indeed, Moscow doesn’t have the money to do so, he continues; and it must turn to China or some other international investor if it is even going to be close to what Putin and other Russian officials are calling anytime in the next several decades. Indeed, this year, the NSR carried only half of the amount Putin projected it would now a few years ago.

            And there is an additional bottleneck which the boosters of the NSR ignore: Most of the cargo carried along the NSR now consists of bulk cargo of oil, gas and coal for export; but sanctions and changes in what other countries are buying and from whom mean that the NSR won’t have any chance of meeting its goals until it diversifies what it carries still further.

Moscow Plans to Extend to the Postal System the Same ‘Last Mile’ Approach It has Employed against Internet Providers, Yakovlev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Moscow has sought to establish control over “the last mile” approach as far as digital traffic on the Internet is concerned. Now, Denis Yakovlev says, it is planning to “extend this very same model into the realm of the delivery of physical goods”  by making Russian Post “the gateway for the consumption” of mail.

            This plan, the Most Media commentator says, will not only have an impact on the delivery market alone but will impose state control over everyday life in ways that are “quiet and imperceptible” but extraordinarily radical (https://mostmedia.org/ru/posts/bitva-za-poslednjuju-milju-rossyskaja-vlast-beret-pod-kontrol-rynok-pochtovyh-uslug-po-toi-zhe-modeli-chto-i-internet).

            The Russian Ministry for Digital Development has proposed legislation that will require all private delivery services to contract with and use Russian Post for the delivery of packages to consumers’ homes, the so-called “last mile” in the network between suppliers and consumers, he says, thus giving the state new control over much of Russian life.

            If this bill is approved, and it almost certainly will be, “all private marketplaces will be forced to operate through this channel and, according to the provisions of the measure, have to pay for the privilege,” something that in the short term may save the troubled government postal service but in the longer term will restrict the rights and freedoms of Russians still further.

            “Massive, unwieldy and in a perpetual state of reform,” and now bleeding employees at an unprecedented level because of low pay and poor working conditions, “the Russian Post on paper is the country’s largest logistics network with nearly 40,000 branches, of which 27,000 are in remote rural settlements,” the commentator says.

            According to Yakovlev, “rescuing the floundering Russian Post could result in the demise of almost the entire fleet” of private delivery services and thus “drive a vibrant, competitive market into an inefficient and crumbling state-run infrastructure” that would ensure central control but not good service.

            At the present time, he continues, “Russia’s delivery service market operates on two levels: the urban one that is largely controlled” by private firms “and the rural one which is dominated by Russian Post through its network of post offices. What makes sense for cities is very different from what makes sense for rural areas.

            If large numbers of private firms leave the delivery business rather than pay the high charges the government wants them to give to Russian Post, the entire system will slow down, but Moscow will gain near total control over the delivery of physical goods just as it is trying to do with regard to digital information on line.

‘For First Time in Modern History, Russian Economy Suffering from a Labor Shortage,’ Central Bank Head Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – For the first time in its modern history, “the Russian economy is facing a labor shortage,” a development that is imposing severe structural constraints on its growth, Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Russian central bank says. And that along with restrictions on trade is evidence that “the economy is overheating.”

            Her remarks to the Moscow Economic Forum are the latest indication that the Russian authorities if not yet Vladimir Putin are frightened by what is going on and see no real prospects for change until major changes are taken in policies across the board (rosbalt.ru/news/2026-04-16/nabiullina-v-rossii-nehvatka-rabochey-sily-vpervye-v-ee-istorii-5581310).

            Nabiullina’s words will add to pressures on the Kremlin not only to wind up Putin’s war in Ukraine, something that would be popular among most Russians but also to reverse course on restricting the entrance of migrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus, something that would likely be extremely unpopular.

            Putin has acknowledged that the Russian economy is contracting and now stands at a level 1.8 percent below what it was a year ago; but he appears to believe he can ride this out, although comments by senior officials like Nabiullina are going to make that more unpopular among many in the elite as well as even more in the population.

A Football Team that Was Losing as Much as the Russian Economy Is would Change Managers, Academician Nigmatulin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Speaking at the Moscow Economic Forum on April 8, Academician Robert Nigmatulin said that any football team which was losing as much as the Russian economy has been recently would get rid of those in charge and bring in a team capable of acting more effectively.

            To the applause of his audience, Nigmatullin said that Russia now ranks 51^st out of 53 of “the more or less developed” economies in the world, a position that must be changed for Russia to have a successful future (echofm.online/video-dnya/robert-nigmatulin-my-iz-53-h-bolee-menee-razvityh-stran-zanimaem-51-e-mesto-nu-chto-mozhno-govorit-eshhyo and x.com/JayinKyiv/status/2045389885461127630).

            His words and the extent they were welcomed by his audience are significant because they carry with them the strong suggestion that Putin and his team are to blame for what is happening and must be replaced by others who can do a better job just as a failing sports team would certainly do more quickly than the Russian polity seems capable of.

Blogger Attracts Attention of Russians and the Kremlin for Saying Putin Doesn’t Know What is Happening in His Country

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 16 – Viktoriya Bonya, a former Moscow tv host who now writes a popular blog, has attracted widespread attention both from the Russian population and even from the Kremlin for saying that Putin doesn’t know what is happening in his country and needs to establish a channel that will bypass what she suggests are aides who don’t tell him the truth.

            In an 18-minute blog post (instagram.com/reel/DXFiPlrCBdS/), she casts herself as a supporter of the president who fears he is being isolated, the latest example of the old Russian belief in “the good tsar” being separated from his people by “the bad boyars” (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/04/14/mnogogo-vy-ne-znaete, meduza.io/feature/2026/04/14/narod-vas-boitsya-viktoriya-bonya-zapisala-obraschenie-k-vladimiru-putinu and maximonline.ru/guide/obrashenie-viktorii-boni-k-vladimiru-putinu-pochemu-ono-vyzvalo-obshestvennyi-rezonans-i-pochemu-bonya-izuchena-vsego-na-1-id6966563/).

            Bonya says that it is obvious that Putin doesn’t know what is agitating Russians about such problems as the flooding in Dagestan, oil leaks, the killing of protected species, the destruction of farm animals, and the problems that have arisen because of government restrictions on the Internet.

            Her post has attracted more than 23 million views and over 500,000 likes, with some of the visitors expressing a certain contempt for her ideas given that she lives in Monaco rather than Russian but overwhelmingly, Russians have backed her arguments. The Kremlin has acknowledged it is paying attention too but has asked pro-Kremlin media not to cover the story (meduza.io/news/2026/04/16/v-administratsii-prezidenta-kak-uznala-meduza-nastoyatelno-poprosili-loyalnye-smi-ne-razvivat-temu-obrascheniya-boni).

            Given that Kremlin critics have rarely been able to reach as many people or gain the attention of people in the Kremlin, it is entirely possible that what some are calling “glamour” protests will now grow as other popular bloggers speak out while professing only loyalty and concern.

            That may not sound like much but in a country where the Kremlin tries to block all criticism otherwise, this is an important development and one that may have an impact not only on future policies by on politics more generally as Russia heads into the campaign for the Duma election now scheduled for September.