Paul Goble
Staunton, Oct. 18 – Georgy Filimonov, governor of Russia’s Vologda Oblast, has attracted widespread attention for his flamboyant efforts to cut alcohol consumption by severely limiting the time when residents there can buy it. But statistics show that his campaign has backfired and that Vologdans are now drinking more than they were before he introduced restrictions.
Still worse, the data show that consumption in neighboring and predominantly ethnic Russian regions where officials have not restricted alcohol sales continue to see the per capita consumption of alcohol decline, yet another example of the counterproductive impact of policies driven not be accurate information but by passionate belief that the powers know best.
In January before the restrictions on alcohol sales went into effect, Vologdans were consuming alcoholic beverages at the rate of 7.7 liters of pure alcohol per person per year. But in September, their consumption had risen to a rate of 9.65 (moscowtimes.ru/2025/10/18/zhiteli-vologodskoi-oblasti-stali-bolshe-pit-posle-vvedeniya-ogranichenii-na-prodazhu-spirtnogo-a177602).
And those are official numbers. The real ones are certainly far higher, and the problem is certainly greater if one includes as the official statistics generally don’t both home-brewed alcohol (samogon) and surrogates like perfumes and cleaning products that many Russians drink when they can’t get alcoholic beverages.
One hopes that these figures will take some of the air out of the populist governor’s campaign; but it is far more likely in the current climate that the authorities will simply cut back on the information they release or falsify the numbers they do give to the press. Otherwise the questions Filimonov should be asked are likely to be asked of other and more important officials.
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