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When Westerners think of Russia, bears, snow, matryoshki and, of course, vodka are among the first things that come to mind.
The pervasiveness and social acceptance of vodka have attracted the government’s attention in recent years due to worrying levels of alcoholism. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, per capita alcohol consumption in Russia is about 15.76 liters annually, the fourth-highest volume in Europe.
This concern is not new: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launched an all-out campaign to eradicate drunkenness, revoking liquor licenses, banning vodka consumption at Soviet embassies and razing vineyards. Even President Boris Yeltsin, whose fondness for vodka was no secret, raised its price and instituted laws to keep drinking in check, only encouraging the black market for homemade samogon (moonshine).
Recent efforts have focused on taxation: in the past two years, the excise tax on alcohol has risen by 73 percent, 33 percent on Jan. 1, 2013, alone. Currently, the minimum price of a half-liter bottle is 170 rubles ($5.20), compared to 98 rubles in 2011 ($3 at current exchange rates).
A further rise, of 27 percent, will come into effect at the start of 2014.
The social impact
Some experts believe these increases will contribute to budget growth by 25 percent annually, but not everyone shares this optimism.

“The Finance Ministry thinks that 2 times 2 will equal 4, always,” Alexander Romanov, head of the Alcoholic Beverages Council, told The Moscow News. “They don’t care about reducing alcoholism or any other direct or indirect consequences their actions may have on production or on people. They care only about beefing up the budget… but 2 times 2 is not always 4 in real life.”
Romanov’s concern goes beyond the lower industry revenues that would result from lower sales of a more expensive legal product, to the social and health implications of the samogon or, worse, denatured alcohol that would replace it.
On August 9, Dmitry Dobrov, chairman of the Russian Union of Alcohol Producers, sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin, asking him to freeze the excise for spirits at its current level until at least 2017.