Russians Dying from Alcohol Poisoning Seven Times as Often Per Capita as Europeans in Part the Result of Dangerous Surrogates

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 23 – So far this month, Russia has been the scene of two mass deaths from alcohol poisoning, in Orenburg and Yekaterinburg, as well as more numerous deaths in other places across the country. Moscow has sought to play down the numbers, but they are staggeringly high compared to European countries and likely reflect the impact of surrogates.

            Worse, these numbers are rising. In 2019, there were 6400 deaths from alcohol poisoning in Russia; last year that number jumped to 10,200 even though the Russian authorities like to play up the fact that consumption of officially registered alcoholic beverages has fallen (russian.eurasianet.org/россия-борьба-с-суррогатами-алкоголя-провалена).

            At present, Russia is suffering seven times as many deaths per 100,000 population than are European countries, a pattern that almost certainly reflects both the diversion of legitimate alcohol products in Russia to avoid taxation and the continuing and possibly even growing amount of samogon – Russian for “moonshine” and surrogates – there (sk.skolkovo.ru/storage/file_storage/b28ed58b-cc05-4c31-8e97-48c0dac647e0/SKOLKOVO_CMDC_Shadow_alcohol_market_Full_Report_Rus.pdf).

            Three years ago, the Russian government announced plans to cut the estimated amount of such unregulated alcoholic beverages from 2.6 liters per capita to 1.2 liters by 2024, but it has now given up on this after the first year showed a decline of only 0.1 liter per person (rbc.ru/economics/17/10/2019/5da5baff9a7947b9dbfcb123).

            One indication of how rapidly samogon production is growing, Russian specialists on the alcohol market say, is the more than 30 percent jump in sales of moonshine producing equipment and also purchases of sugar which go into them to produce alcoholic beverages (ria.ru/20210527/samogon-1734350222.html).

            As taxes on regulated alcohol have risen and incomes have stagnated, ever more people turn to “bootleggers” for their alcohol. Many trust the latter as much as or more than government-registered producers, meaning that cuts in prices some have urged won’t necessarily lead to a decline in the amount of samogon sold.

            The pandemic has made all of these trends worse: Russians are drinking more, have less money and thus are turning to cheaper samogon and even more dangerous surrogates for their alcohol. At the same time, the authorities have failed to make promised progress; and many observers believe that they have in fact given up in reality if not yet in propaganda claims.