Revealing, but not reveling, my ignorance here, but I thought the Caucuses was one of the regions with the longest lived people, at least individually. Can’t be far off geographically , is it?
You’re right, and a few of those high LE regions are within Russia, like Dagestan. It is Muslim but alcohol is not forbidden.
It’s been a puzzle for a long time. Because alcohol consumption is below other countries with higher LE, that was discarded. That’s why it is a puzzle. Non Russia slavic countries have the same LE problem, and of course there are slavic countries who do not have the problem.