Russians Again Drinking Less Beer and Wine and More Hard Liquor, Driving Down Life Expectancy and Increasing Violent Crime, Russian Statistics Show

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Jan. 8 – For the first time since 2017, Russia’s alcohol control service has published statistics on alcohol consumption. They show that Russians are now drinking more than at any time in the last eight years and that their consumption is increasingly of hard liquor like vodka rather than beef, the drinking of which has declined.
    According to a HSE specialist speaking on condition of anonymity, this “Northern pattern” of alcohol consumption plays a major role in suppressing the life expectancy of Russian men, something that means they die far earlier than do Russian women (sibreal.org/a/roznichnye-prodazhi-alkogolya-v-rossii-obnovili-istoricheskiy-maksimum/33256302.html).
    But what is especially worrisome, he and other experts say, is that the recent increase in the consumption of hard liquor and the decline in the drinking of beer that the release of the new statistics shows reverses some, although not all, of the progress that Russia had made between 2000 and 2020.
    One of the reasons Russians are currently drinking more, these experts say, is that instead of speaking with their friends about their problems, they choose to drink alone and thus more heavily out of fear that they might be subject to denunciation if they say the wrong thing while drinking with others.
    Most attention focuses on the impact of alcohol consumption on users and the demographic consequences of that, these specialists say; but there is another and perhaps larger consequence that should be worrying people: more heavy drinking is leading to more crime and violence, trends that harm even those who do not drink heavily or even a lot.