RUSSIA:Russians' consumption of alcohol has tripled since the fall of the Soviet Union, with the average person now knocking back the equivalent of 34 litres of vodka a year, new figures show. In a frank and at times morbid report, Russia's chief medical officer, Gennadi Onishenko, yesterday admitted that the nation had a serious alcohol problem.
According to the figures for 2005, Russia has about 2,348,567 registered alcoholics. As well as vodka and beer, Russians also down quantities of dubious substitutes, such as perfume and homemade vodka, Mr Onishenko said.
Alexsander Nemtsov, an alcohol expert at Moscow's psychiatric research institute, told Isvestiya: "Every third death in this country is the direct or indirect result of alcohol consumption."
In Russia alcohol is linked to 72 per cent of murders and 42 per cent of suicides. Up to 750,000 die each year because of alcohol.
Alexey Christyakov of Moscow's Alco-Med Centre, said: "The main cause of alcoholism is that over the last 16 years Russia has gone through a revolution . . . many people have seen the foundations of their lives disappear. They haven't been able to find a new one." - (Guardian service)