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Alcohol Consumption in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin Essay

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Decreasing Alcohol Consumption in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin

While he has been in power, President Putin has been bringing about major reforms on

alcohol in Russia in an attempt to lower alcohol consumption on a whole as well as raise the

average life expectancy of Russian citizens. As part of these reforms, Putin has introduced

several different strict measures in order to help cut down on alcohol consumption in Russia.

Studies and reports done about these new measures show that they have been key in Russia's rise

in life expectancy. They also show that the average alcohol consumption has fallen forty-three

percent from 2003 to 2016 and is expected to continue to fall if everything continues to work out

as Putin plans (Rainsford). However, this is not the first time that Russia has seen such drastic

measures put into place to attempt to decrease alcohol consumption. While he was in power,

Mikhail Gorbachev tried to do the same thing that Putin is achieving now. And while Gorbachev

was successful for some time with his Anti-Alcohol Campaign, after the Soviet Union collapsed

there was a sharp increase in sales as well as consumption. This sharp increase in consumption

can again be directly correlated and compared to the sudden increase in consumption that Russia

is seeing right now with the quarantine due to the widespread COVID pandemic. Two of

Russia’s most prominent leaders, Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev have spent countless

time and resources trying to decrease the alcohol consumption problem that Russia has in order

to better the quality and span of life of the Russian citizens, these attempts are strikingly parallel

to each other and have been met with varying levels of success throughout the years.

President Vladimir Putin is the current Russian leader who is attempting to tackle the

massive issue of alcohol consumption in Russia, and according to a recent World Health

Organization report, he has been pretty successful. Over a decade long time frame the average

Russian alcohol consumption has decreased by forty-three percent (Rainsford). This is a major

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achievement for the country seeing as before this subsidence, Russia was considered to be one of

the, if not the heaviest-drinking country in the world (Rodgers). This is mainly because

consumption has been on a steady rise since the collapse of the Soviet Union circa 1991 and this

steady increase hit its peak in 2003 and since then has been on a steady decline thanks to the

reforms that Putin put in place (France-Presse). These reforms that are being put into place

include measures such as banning the sale of alcohol after eleven at night, as well as increasing

the retail price of vodka and cognac, putting heavy restrictions on the advertisement of alcohol,

making it illegal to drink in public and on the streets, and the government is even considering

raising the legal drinking age in Russia from eighteen to twenty-one, same as it is here in the

United States (“Russia's Alcohol Consumption Plummets More Than 40% – WHO Study”). This

would be a drastic change in the way of life for many young Russians who are used to being able

to buy alcohol now, but if this new age restriction is put in place, they would now have to wait an

extra three years before being able to legally drink again.

Similar to President Putin’s reforms regarding alcohol consumption, Soviet leader

Mikhail Gorbachev ran an albeit somewhat successful three-year Anti-Alcohol Campaign in

Russia from 1985 until 1988 (Bhattacharya et al). Gorbachev saw that the mortality rate in

Russia was on the rise and before that it was already strikingly high, this, along with the previous

low life expectancy of Russian citizens led Gorbachev to spend a lot of his resources on trying to

bring about another prohibition on alcohol for the good of the country. To start of his campaign

against alcohol, in 1985, Gorbachev signed a document called “Measures to Overcome

Drunkenness and Alcoholism” (Gathmann and Welisch). This resolution outlined many of the

different reforms that were about to happen in Russia in a desperate bid to curb the problem of

excessive alcohol consumption. These reforms are all basically synonymous with what Putin has

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Decreasing Alcohol Consumption in Russia from Gorbachev to Putin While he has been in power, President Putin has been bringing about major reforms on alcohol in Russia in an attempt to lower alcohol consumption on a whole as well as raise the average life expectancy of Russian citizens. As part of these reforms, Putin has introduced several different strict measures in order to help cut down on alcohol consumption in Russia. Studies and reports done about these new measures show that they have been key in Russia's rise in life expectancy. They also show that the average alcohol consumption has fallen forty-three percent from 2003 to 2016 and is expected to continue to fall if everything continues to work out as Putin plans (Rainsford). However, this is not the first time that Russia has seen such drastic measures put into place to attempt to decrease alcohol consumption. While he was in power, Mikhail Gorbachev tried to do the same thing that Putin is achieving now. And while Gorbachev was successful for some time with his Anti-Alcohol Campaign, after the Soviet Union collapsed there was a sharp increase in sales as well as consumption. This sharp increase in consumption can again be directly correlated and compared to the sudden increase in consumption that Russia is seeing right now with the quarantine due to the widespread COVID pandemic. Two of Russia’s most prominent leaders, Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev have spent countless time and resources trying to decreas ...
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