Alcoholism Remains Widespread in Russian North but Authorities Doing Little to Help

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 13 – Moscow officials have trumpeted figures showing declining rates of alcohol consumption among Russians and have promised to open new-style sobering-up stations to help alcoholics. But alcoholism remains widespread in the impoverished cities of the Russian North, and only NGOs rather than the government doing much to help.

            Official figures show that regions in northern Siberia have the highest rates of alcohol consumption, followed by those in the North-West (trezvros.ru/calendar/874), but that there are as yet no government-operated sobering up stations in either place, according to a comprehensive survey of the problem by the SeverReal portal (severreal.org/a/30322342.html).

            In a 2800-word article, the portal’s journalists paint a dreary picture in which poverty and the absence of alternative forms of entertainment combined with long winters and the incompetence of officials drive people to drink excessively at the price of their health and the well-being of themselves and those around them.

            According to anti-alcohol activists in the North, the problem is far worse than official statistics acknowledge.  Irina Frolova, head of the No to Alcoholism and Narcotics in Veliky Novgorod, for every alcoholic officials count, there are nine more than aren’t included in the government’s statistics. She says widespread poverty is the biggest explanation.

            Private groups like her own and like Alcoholics Anonymous have made a small dent in the problem, but they are overwhelmed by its size and by the failure of the authorities to take effective action. Most regional officials have limited their moves against alcoholism to limits on the hours alcohol can be sold. But that seldom works: people find ways around it for profit.

            Sultan Khamzayev, the leader of the Sober Russia movement, agrees. In fact, he suggests, limiting hours of the sale of alcohol has led to the rise of an entire network of illegal distribution which means that alcoholics can get what they want if anything even easier than they did before the restrictions were put in place.

            A month ago, the Duma passed on first reading a bill that would restore the Soviet-era system of sobering up stations.  They were closed down to save money in 2011, but the result has been that when the police pick up someone drunk on the streets, they take him to already overburdened hospitals.

            In Pskov Oblast, SeverReal says, some 8,000 to 9,000 drunks are taken to hospitals each year. Most don’t need any treatment other than time to sober up, but they fill the hospital corridors and drive many who do need medical attention away. And doctors seldom check them for tuberculosis or other diseases.

            The lack of sobering up stations remains a subject of debate. Vologda anti-alcohol doctor Aleksey Starodubtsev says closing them was a mistake and that they should be reopened.  But Valery Koltakov, a deputy in the Pskov district assembly, says he doesn’t want to see the old system come back because of how it would be abused.

            “This after all is Russia, not Europe,” he suggests, and a normal and helpful sobering up system won’t be put in place. People do need to be taken off the streets, “but in out state, it will be anti-people” and “be used as an instrument of repression.” Someone the authorities don’t approve of will be accused of alcoholism after taking a single drink of beer.

            “It is not a secret for anyone that people who take an active political position are being watched,” Koltakov says.  Labelling them drunks and then imposing huge fines are the consequences of bringing back sobering up stations, at least as long as the Putin regime is in place.

            Khamzayev agrees that sobering up stations now should not be like those of the Soveit period, but people found drunk on the streets need places to sober up, get cleaned up, and “if necessary provided medical assistance and sent for further rehabilitation.” Unfortunately, few regions are doing that.

            He stresses that there is no single magic bullet to solve the problem of alcoholism. Propaganda or sobering up stations aren’t going to be enough. Limiting sales won’t work by itself. And unless the problem of surrogates is addressed in a far more serious way, more Russians are going to die from poisoning especially during the upcoming holidays.

            Other Northern countries like Finland and Canada, Khamzayev says, have come up with effective means of combatting excessive drinking and alcoholism. Russia should be copying them rather than drying to continue along its own “special path.” That isn’t leading anywhere except to disaster.