Word: russia
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...Russia is in the middle of a revival in moonshine not as a cheap way to drink, but as a hobby and craft. Actors and musicians have revealed their recipes to magazines. Indeed, Russian liquor store shelves and supermarkets now stock a product that uses the appeal of bootleg as its selling point. "I talked to my friends about my idea for sometime and we came to the conclusion that making samogon, would be a great business model," says Nikolai Poluetkov the manager of Kosogorov Samogon, which calls itself the first moonshine to have a license. "We spent 2003 looking...
...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...
Good quality samogon, however, is unlikely to do anything for Russia's epidemic of alcoholism. Says Poluetkov, "If people want to drink window cleaner and aftershave, and sniff glue, nothing will stop them. Because window cleaner, aftershave and glue will always be on sale. An addiction is a psychological problem, not just a financial...
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...
...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 will resort to making...