BBC

Tuesday, 27 March, 2001, 14:49 GMT 15:49 UK

Russia declares war on beer

Every year Russians consume 14 litres of pure alcohol each

By Caroline Wyatt in Moscow

Russia is trying to clamp down on beer, which it says is a deadly addiction sweeping the nation.

Never mind the fact that alcohol poisoning from home-brewed vodka kills 22,000 a year, the Russian health ministry wants to ban beer advertising aimed at young people, and outlaw high alcohol brands.

Breweries argue they are still small beer compared with vodka consumption.

All over Moscow, young people can be seen clutching a bottle of beer in their hand - at almost any time of day, on the street, in the park and even on the underground.

Addiction

Bizarrely, beer is not classed as alcohol, so many see it as a soft drink - and even children can buy it.

Russia's Deputy Health Minister, Gennady Onischenko, has had enough.

He has declared war on beer - saying it is threatening to become a deadly addiction in a country already far too fond of its drink.

"Every year, Russians consume 14 litres of pure alcohol each. Instead of replacing that huge quantity, they are just drinking beer on top of it," he says.

"This has to be stopped. We have reports that in some cities, 10 year old children are drinking beer on a regular basis."

'Healthy alternative'

When a song encouraging people to drink beer came out in 1975, Russians hardly drank any at all.

The film the song came from portrayed the beer seller as a ruffian. Today though, beer has a rather trendier image and it is targetted at Russia's fastest-growing market - the young.

Supermarket shelves are stacked with hundreds of varieties - some at least twice the strength of foreign imports. But beer manufacturers deny there's a problem.

Dmitri Sitnikov of the Bravo brewery says beer is a healthy alternative to vodka.

"Young people are choosing beer over vodka because it is trendy. Vodka is part of the Soviet era," he points out.

Backing

Drinking - whether in a pub or at home - is very much a part of Russian culture. A billion litres of vodka are drunk every year.

Now, on top of that, each Russian is drinking 30 litres of beer - not much in itself compared with Europe, but a huge increase over the past ten years.

But youngsters at the Moscow pubs do not understand what the fuss is about.

These days Russia needs no encouragement to drink beer - even President Vladimir Putin is believed to prefer it to vodka.

With backing like that, the Russian health ministry may find it is fighting a losing battle.

-- Anonymous, March 27, 2001