Before 2013, anyone in Russia could just pop over to a street kiosk buy a bottle of everyone’s favourite non-alcoholic drink. We’re talking, of course, about beer.
Specifically, any beer with less than 10% alcohol by volume was not considered an alcoholic drink. That’s pretty much all beer except the very strongest selections at your local craft brewery.
It all started changing in 2011 when then-president Dmitry Medvedev signed a bill that declared all beer technically alcohol. The law didn’t come to life until 2013, but most Russians weren’t happy about it.
Not only is Russia a hard-drinking country, but they also take two weeks off to celebrate around Christmas and the new year. That time of year is one long party punctuated with deep, drunk sleep.
Russians will always be tied to their love of vodka. However, beer moved up the ranks of Russia’s favourite drinks thanks to some clever marketing. At the time, beer was advertised as a healthy alternative to vodka and other strong spirits, pushing its sales up 40%.
During that time, vodka fell out of favour. People continued to drink vodka but they couldn’t buy it on the street the way they could buy beer. The advantage of beer over vodka was its all-day availability.
You could get beer in even the most family-friendly restaurants, for example, but you had better not walk out the door with it. In the early 2000s, Russians could legally drink as much beer as they wanted anywhere in public because it was considered a foodstuff and not alcohol.
It was sold around the clock in stores, at parks, and even on the metro. If you could get a bottle of water, you could buy a bottle of beer.
In 2010, the Russian beer industry faced a tax hike aimed at keeping public consumption down. Even as prices went up, however, Russians continued drinking. Officials came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the cost of beer that was the issue, it was the availability.
In 2011, Medvedev signed the bill that classified beer as alcohol. The bill outlawed the sale of beer in street kiosks, the metro, and gas stations, which accounted for about 30% of total beer sales in Russia.
On top of its prohibition from specific vendors, beer advertisements were removed from television, and beer can no longer be sold anywhere between 11:00 P.M. and 8:00 A.M.
According to a 2012 report from The Telegraph, around 500,000 deaths in Russia were thought to be alcohol-related, with the average Russian drinking about 32 pints of pure alcohol per year.
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