RUSSIA: Official calls for alcohol curfew - report

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 15 March 2010

Pressure grows for alcohol sales curbs

Russia's top public health adviser has called for a ban on alcoholic drinks sales after nine o' clock in the evening, according to a local report.

Alcohol sales should be forbidden during the night, Gennady Onishchenko told Russian news agency RIA Novosti yesterday (14 March).

The report, which could not be immediately confirmed by just-drinks, comes as Russia's Government weighs up a range of strategies to tackle excess drinking in the country.

The Government has already tripled duty tax on beer and introduced a minimum price of RUB89 ($3) per 0.5 litres on vodka.

Prime minister Vladimir Putin has gone on record as calling the nation's drinking habit a "scourge".

Warning labels, shorter selling hours and advertising curbs are all proposals put forward by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a drinks industry source told just-drinks in January.

Sectors: Beer & cider, Spirits, Wine