Word: alcoholizing
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...from what most Russians think of moonshine, a time-dishonored pastime in a country where alcohol poisoning has helped lead to a population decline. In January, The Moscow Times reported that the reason for so many deaths is that 300 million liters of substances never intended for human consumption are drunk annually - these include perfume, aftershave, and cleaning liquids. Many shops sell contraband vodka which is made from a combination of those liquids and water. (See a story about 21st Century American moonshine...
...shelf not far from his tools. Unlike the stereotypical moonshine (or samogon, as it's called in Russian), Gusev distills boutique and artisanal spirits, joining the country's homebrew renaissance. He doesn't need to do it. He is educated employed and has access to high-quality alcohol. "I don't do this to get drunk, for me it's a craft, it's an annual project," Gusev said. "The trick is not to wash the apples, there is natural yeast on their skin, which makes them ferment better...
Samogon, which literally means self distilled, had its heyday in the mid 1980s when Mikhail Gorbachev enforced his alcohol reforms which, among other things, restricted sales to certain stories and prohibited restaurants from serving drinks before 2 p.m. It was a mini-Prohibition and, to get their lips on hooch, people were making alcohol with anything they had. One popular recipe suggested putting yeast, sugar and milk into a washing machine, switching it on a two hour cycle and then distilling the result. In rural Russia, peasants drank heart medication because they believed it contained alcohol...
There are 2.5 million alcoholics in the country according to Russia's chief epidemiologist Gennadi Onishchenko. Just last year 19,000 people died of alcohol poisoning; and while this number is less than previous years, alcoholism is still a large factor in Russia's declining population and is responsible for the large gender gap in the mortality rates. To cut down on deaths from poisonous substances, the Russian Government plans to introduce a set minimum price for vodka, which will be 100 rubles ($3) for half a liter...
...Moscow this won't make a difference," explains Vadim Drobiz the director of the Federal and Regional Center of Alcohol Market Research. "Moscow is the only city where people can afford to regularly buy high quality alcohol. But in the regions this will be a big problem." He explains, "In rural Russia 100 rubles for a bottle of vodka is expensive, and they will drink something else, what I don't know." According to Drobiz 45% of the vodka on sale is contraband and retails below 50 rubles ($1.50) for half a liter. "I hope that for their sake villages...