Posted on 07/08/2009 1:15:04 PM PDT by presidio9
President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed surprise at how much alcohol Russians drink and ordered the government to develop a program to discourage drinking.
"The alcohol consumption we have is colossal," Medvedev told Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova at a meeting this week.
"I was astonished to learn that we now drink more than we did in the 1990s, although those were very tough times," Medvedev said, according to a transcript on the Kremlin's web site.
He told Golikova to devise an anti-alcohol strategy. "We need to prepare a corresponding program and take appropriate measures," Medvedev said.
A report by The Lancet medical journal last week said alcohol-related diseases caused about half of all deaths of Russians between the ages of 15 and 54 in the 1990s.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin highlighted the problem at a meeting with World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan last Friday and promised to promote a healthier lifestyle.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who initiated a 1986 anti-alcohol campaign that led to a boom in illegal production of low-quality alcohol, called on Monday for a new drive. "We are destroying ourselves, and then we will look for those who destroyed our country, for those who made us drink," he said.
Dude they ruled like a quarter of the globe for a few decades and all without the help of an anti-alcohol campaign.
This reads like a pretty good satire. Is John Semmens in Moscow today?
sorry - came out twice
Booze + more money = more booze
It’s bad. I’ve seen it first hand in Ukraine. Grown men so intoxicated that they have to be carried by their almost equally intoxicated friends at 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. I watched a staggering drunk on the street tumble onto a small child, pushing her in front of an oncoming bus that fortunately swerved out of the way. Older children and young teenagers drinking at the playgrounds. All common sights in Russia and Ukraine.
Booze TSAR
Still funny the second time. I always laugh at loud at that line every time I see the movie.
Taxes! That is always the answer!
j/k to all you 11mikes out there.
Well it’s back to the pruno
It is a tragedy. Unless you have seen someone die of alcoholism, you don’t have an appreciation for how truly horrible it is. Those who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body would suggest that they suffer from a spiritual malady
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