New Year's Revelry Gets Official Nod and Wink

While Western law enforcement sternly encourages a non-alcoholic holiday season, official Moscow is all set for a rollicking municipal New Year.


On Friday, some phones at the city's militia headquarters were answered "Happy New Year," in keeping with Mayor Yury Luzhkov's policy of holiday boosterism. Luzhkov issued a slew of spirited decrees -- freeing price controls on Christmas trees, for instance, and mandating decorations for shop windows. Moreover, his office ensured the delivery of 800,000 bottles of champagne and ordered Kristall vodka distillery to speed up its assembly lines, as it did all through the Soviet era, mayoral spokesmen said.


And as Russians prepare to take to the streets for traditional holiday carousing, the Moscow police are in a genial state of alert.


"There's always a little bit of hooliganism on New Year's -- it's in the Russian nature. Also, people are drinking a lot. That's common knowledge," said Moscow police spokesman Vladimir Zubkov.


Although drunk driving and vandalism rates go up on New Year's Eve, other crimes are less common, since even offenders are focused on merrymaking, he said. "Criminals also know how to meet the new year," he added. "We expect a limited amount of disorder."


So, no special measures have been taken to combat street crime in the capital, he said. "The same regime will be in place tomorrow as we had on November 30," said Zubkov. "Naturally, everyone will be trying to keep order on the streets, but policemen are generally sympathetic on this night," he added. "They are people, too."


As he looked out onto Red Square -- which he has guarded for 20 years -- one police officer said the New Year's crowd was no more mischievous than any group of celebrating Russians. Public drunkenness is the worst crime he has observed, said the officer, who asked to be identified only as Alexander.


"Everything will be calm here, as it always has been. I'll tell you why," he said, twirling his mustache and smiling. "Because I'm here."