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President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed surprise at how much alcohol Russians drink and ordered the government to develop a program to discourage drinking.
"The alcohol consumption we have is colossal," Medvedev told Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova at a meeting this week.
"I was astonished to learn that we now drink more than we did in the 1990s, although those were very tough times," Medvedev said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's web site.
He told Golikova to devise an anti-alcohol strategy. "We need to prepare a corresponding program and take appropriate measures," Medvedev said.
A report by The Lancet medical journal last week said alcohol-related diseases caused about half of all deaths of Russians between the ages of 15 and 54 in the 1990s.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin highlighted the problem at a meeting with World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan last Friday and promised to promote a healthier lifestyle.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who initiated a 1986 anti-alcohol campaign that led to a boom in illegal production of low-quality alcohol, called on Monday for a new drive. "We are destroying ourselves, and then we will look for those who destroyed our country, for those who made us drink," he said.
(MT, Bloomberg, Reuters)
Medvedev Shocked at Alcoholism
02 July 2009
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