Vodka Politics (108 page)

19
. Balmforth and Feifer, “Russian Health Care Provides No Real Safety Net.”

20
. Ibid.

21
. Ibid.

22
. “More Than 80 Percent of Russian Teenagers Take Alcohol,”
ITAR-TASS Daily
, Oct. 9, 2010,
http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/22613353
(accessed Oct. 11, 2010). See also Aleksandr Nemtsov,
Alkogol’naya istoriya Rossii: Noveishii period
(Moscow: URSS,
2009), 288–90; Grigory G. Zaigraev, “The Russian Model of Noncommercial Alcohol Consumption,” in
Moonshine Markets: Issues in Unrecorded Alcohol Beverage Production and Consumption
, ed. Alan Haworth and Ronald Simpson (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2004), 38. Also see
chapter 21
, note 44.

23
. Nemtsov,
Alkogol’naya istoriya Rossii
, 295 (author’s translation); for an English-language edition see Aleksandr Nemtsov,
A Contemporary History of Alcohol in Russia
, trans. Howard M. Goldfinger and Andrew Stickley (Stockholm: Södertorns högskola, 2011), 320. On the life-expectancy discrepancy between the sexes see
chapter 21
, note 27.

24
. “Medvedev Urges More Steps to Curb Alcohol Threat,”
RIA Novosti
, Aug. 12, 2009,
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090812/155791576.html
(accessed Nov. 5, 2009); Maria Ermakova, “Russia May Ban Beer Sales at Kiosks, Markets, Ministry Says,” Bloomberg, Sept. 29, 2009,
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=afmjcxsVo0Hc
(both accessed Nov. 5, 2009).

25
. Guy Faulconbridge, “Russia’s President Calls Time on Vodka ‘Disaster’,” Reuters, Aug. 12, 2009,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/08/12/us-russia-vodka-idUSTRE57B4KC20090812
; “Medvedev against Ban on Alcohol, Will Fight Problem Differently,” RIA Novosti, July 4, 2009,
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090704/155431427.html
(both accessed Sept. 11, 2009); David Zaridze et al., “Alcohol and Cause-Specific Mortality in Russia: A Retrospective Case-Control Study of 48,557 Adult Deaths,”
The Lancet
373 (2009): 2201. See also N. F. Izmerov and G. I. Tikhonova, “Problemy zdorov’ya rabotayushchego naseleniya v Rossii,”
Problemy prognozirovaniya
3 (2011): 56.

26
. Oleg Shchedrov, “Medvedev Praises Anti-Alcohol Drive,”
Moscow Times
, July 20, 2009.

27
. “Medvedev Urges More Steps to Curb Alcohol Threat.”

28
. Megan K. Stack, “Foreign Exchange: Russian President Takes out after Alcohol,”
Los Angeles Times
, Sept. 3, 2009,
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/03/world/fg-russia-booze3
; Maria Antonova and Anna Malpas, “Medvedev Puts Limits on Alcohol,”
Moscow Times
, Sept. 14, 2009,
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/383100/index.html
(accessed Sept. 15, 2009).

29
. Richard Weitz, “Global Insights: Russia’s Demographic Timebomb,”
World Politics Review
, Feb. 15, 2011,
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/7888/global-insights-russias-demographic-timebomb
(accessed Feb. 17, 2011).

30
. Pavel Butorin, “‘Squirrel from Hell’ Takes on Russian Alcoholism,”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
, Dec. 22, 2010,
http://www.rferl.org/content/squirrel_from_hell_takes_on_russian_alcoholism/2255880.html
(accessed Dec. 25, 2010); for the “Squirrel from Hell,” see “Adskaya belochka,”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73cjNp7n75o
(Nov. 25, 2010); “Adskaya belochka 2: Tolyan-bratan,”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JtdhvAjXtM
(Dec. 19, 2011); “Zolotaya Manufaktura” vodka company,
http://rsg.org.ru/en/belochka
.

31
. Seth Meyers, “Weekend Update,”
Saturday Night Live
, Nov. 7, 2009,
http://www.hulu.com/watch/107514/saturday-night-live-taylor-swift#s-p12-so-i0
(at 35:5; accessed March 7, 2012). See also Andrew Osborn, “Kremlin Encourages Russia to Drink More Wine,”
Telegraph
, Sept. 7, 2011,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8747419/Kremlin-encourages-Russia-to-drink-more-wine.html
(accessed Sept. 11, 2011).

32
. Ekaterina Shcherbakova, “Demograficheskie itogi 2011 goda (chast’ II),”
Demoskop Weekly
, February 20–March 4, 2012,
http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2012/0499/barom03.php
(accessed March 8, 2012). Putin-era average is author’s estimation based on Scherbakova’s data. Alexandra Koshkina, “Alcohol Consumption in Russian Cities Decreasing,”
Gazeta. ru
, Aug. 23, 2011,
http://rbth.ru/articles/2011/08/23/alcohol_consumption_in_russian_cities_decreasing_13282.html
(accessed Aug. 24, 2011); “Booze Kills Seven Per Cent Fewer Muscovites,”
RT.com
, March 9, 2012,
http://rt.com/news/prime-time/booze-mos-cow-statistcis-down-211
(accessed March 10, 2012).

33
. Vedomosti, “Russian Ingenuity Conquers Alcohol Sale Restrictions,”
Moscow Times
, Feb. 8, 2012,
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/alcohol-delivered-afterhours/452672.html
(accessed Feb. 10, 2012).

34
. Igor’ V. Ponkin, “Monitoring i profilaktika potrebleniya alkogol’nykh napitkov v sisteme obrazovaniya,” in
Alkogol’naya katastrofa i vozmozhnosti gosudarstvennoi politiki v preodolenii alkogol’noi sverkosmertnosti v Rossii
, ed. Dar’ya A. Khalturina and Andrei V. Korotaev (Moscow: Lenand, 2010), 332–34; Natalya Krainova, “Report: Adults Drink Less, Teens More,”
Moscow Times
, Nov. 16, 2011,
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/report-adults-drink-less-teens-more/447989.html
(accessed Nov. 18, 2011.) For an on-the-ground take see Jeffrey Tayler, “Russian Hangover: A Moscow Apartment Block’s Tenants Turn over, One Vodka Binge at a Time,”
The Atlantic
, Oct. 11, 2011,
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/russian-hangover/8665/
(accessed Oct. 11, 2011).

35
. 2010 figures from Ekaterina Shcherbakova, “Demograficheskie itogi 2010 goda (chast’ II),”
Demoskop Weekly
, March 7–20, 2011
http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2011/0457/barom03.php
(accessed Aug. 29, 2013). 2011 figures from Ekaterina Shcherbakova, “Demograficheskie itogi 2011 goda (chast’ II).” Figures for the first half of 2013 from Rosstat, “Estestvennoe dvizhenie naseleniya v razreze sub’ektov Rossiiskoi Federatsii za yanvar’-iyul’ 2013 goda,” Aug. 27, 2013,
http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/2013/demo/edn07–13.htm
(accessed Aug. 28, 2013).

36
. Lyudmila Alexandrova, “Legal Output of Vodka Sliding in Russia but Russians Drinking as Much as Always,”
ITAR-TASS
, July 19, 2013,
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c39/813821.html
(accessed July 24, 2013); Isabel Gorst, “Russia’s Vodka Tax: Backfiring,”
Financial Times
(beyondbrics blog), July 17, 2013,
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/07/17/russias-vodka-tax-backfiring/
(accessed July 17, 2013); “Legal Vodka Production Falls by One-Third in Russia,”
RT.com
, June 24, 2013,
http://rt.com/business/russia-vodka-production-falls-158/
(accessed July 17, 2013).

37
. Walter Joyce, “The Battle Continues: Gorbachev’s Anti-Alcohol Policies,” in
Social Change and Social Issues in the Former USSR
, ed. Walter Joyce (New York: St. Martin’s, 1992), 99.

38
. Arina Petrova, “Alkogol’naya sostavlyayushchaya reforma,”
Kommersant
’, June 29, 2011,
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1665297
(accessed Aug. 27, 2013). Many thanks to Anna Bailey for this reference. Earlier estimates have vodka contributing 7–8 percent of the budget. Nemtsov,
Alkogol’naya istoriya Rossii
, 288–90; Zaigraev, “Russian Model,” 38. On the flat tax see Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Mark Rider, and Sally Wallace,
Tax Reform in Russia
(Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 2008), 38–52.

39
. “Medvedev, Putin Toast Each Other with Milk,” AFP, Oct. 2, 2010,
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gpVfhA2SZ4Dh5fxvOo5-QQcXdrLQ?docId=CNG.4db59b76c2daef9f84b5eea831b965fa.441
(accessed Oct. 4, 2010).

40
. Antonova and Malpas, “Medvedev Puts Limits on Alcohol.” See also Polya Lesova, “Russia Targets Beer, Not Vodka, to Tackle Alcoholism,”
Wall Street Journal MarketWatch
, Oct. 9, 2009,
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/russia-targets-beer-not-vodka-vs-alcoholism-2009-10-09
(accessed Oct. 11, 2009).

41
. “Za zdorov’e: Putin posovetoval rossiyanam men’she pit’,” Kasparov.ru, June 26, 2009,
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=4A44AC95792B2
(accessed July 3, 2009); Vladimir Milov et al., eds.,
Putin. Korruptsiya
(Moscow: Partiya narodnoi svobody, 2011), 22–24,
http://www.putin-itogi.ru/f/Putin-i-korruptsiya-doklad.pdf
.

42
. Anna Bailey, “Explaining Rosalkogol’regulirovaniye. Why Does Russia Have a New Federal Alcohol Regulator?” in:
Alkogol’ v Rossii: Materialy vtoroi mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (Ivanovo, 28–29 oktyabrya 2011
), ed. Nikolai V. Dem’yanenko (Ivanovo: Filial RGGU v g. Ivanovo, 2011), 105. On ties to Yawara-Neva and Rosspirtprom, see Nina Petlyanova, “Soobrazili na svoikh,”
Novaya gazeta
, March 4, 2011,
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/6856.html
(accessed Aug. 27, 2013).

43
. Faulconbridge, “Russia’s President Calls Time on Vodka ‘Disaster’.”

44
. “Medvedev Urges More Steps to Curb Alcohol Threat.”

45
. Stanislav Belkovskii, “Kak nam posadit’ federal’nykh ministrov,”
Moskovskii Komsomolets
, April 22, 2011,
http://www.mk.ru/politics/article/2011/04/21/583254-kak-nam-posadit-federalnyih-ministrov.html
; Yulia Latynina, “The 3rd Opium War,”
Moscow Times
, April 20, 2011,
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-3rd-opium-war/435388
. html (accessed April 24, 2011); “Will Golikova Be Shown the Door?”
Rumafia.com
, Dec. 12, 2011,
http://rumafia.com/news.php?id=470
(accessed Dec. 15, 2011).

46
. Zvagelsky on increasing the tax: Malcolm Borthwick, “Russian Beer Sales Suffering Tax Hike,”
BBC News
, May 31, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/business-13604311
(accessed June 2, 2011). Beer more dangerous than vodka, see Irina Novoselova, “Deputatskaya artel’,”
Vek
, April 29, 2010,
http://wek.ru/ekonomika/17636-deputatskayaartel.html
(accessed June 2, 2011).

47
. Lesova, “Russia Targets Beer, Not Vodka, to Tackle Alcoholism.”

48
. Tim Wall, “Beer, Death and Taxes,”
Moscow News
, Oct. 5, 2009,
http://themoscownews.com/proetcontra/20091005/55389702.html
(accessed Oct. 11, 2009).

49
. Isabel Gorst, “Russia: Downing Fewer Pints,”
Financial Times
(BeyondBRICs blog), Nov. 9, 2011,
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/11/09/russia-downing-fewer-pints/#axzz1dcREZv7H
(accessed Nov. 10, 2011); Evgeniya Chaykovskaya, “Russia Produced Record Quantity of Vodka,”
Moscow News
, July 17, 2012,
http://themoscownews.com/russia/20120717/189970216.html
(accessed July 20, 2012); Il’ya Khrennikov, “Russian Beer Output Falls on Restrictions, Fueling Vodka Gains,” Bloomberg, Oct. 17, 2012,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-17/russian-beer-output-falls-on-restrictions-fueling-vodka-gains.html
(accessed October 18, 2012).

50
. Anna Bailey, “Protecting the Public, or Protecting Vodka? How Beer was Banished from Russian Kiosks,” unpublished manuscript, University College London, 2013.

51
. On authoring alcohol legislation: Anna Levinskaya, “U gastronomov v regionakh otzyvayut alkogol’nye litsenzii,”
RBK Daily
, Feb. 13, 2013
http://rbcdaily.ru/market/562949985714936
(accessed Aug. 13, 2013), linked from Zvagelsky’s homepage,
http://www.zvagelskiy.ru/
. On ties to Rosspirtprom and other vodka companies, see “Zvagel’skii, Viktor Fridrikhovich,”
Lobbying.ru
http://www.lobbying.ru/persons.php?id=2722
(accessed May 28, 2013); “A byl li uchreditel’?”
Novaya gazeta
, July 12, 2010,
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/2727.html
(accessed May 28, 2013).

52
. Alina Lobzina, “Alcohol Consumption Fills Russian Budget,”
Moscow News
, Nov. 29, 2012,
http://themoscownews.com/business/20121129/190929807.html
(accessed Dec. 1, 2012).

53
. Anatoly Medetsky, “In a Populist Move, Putin Promises $16bln for Health Care,”
Moscow Times
, April 21, 2010,
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/in-a-populist-move-putin-promises-16bln-for-health-care/404405.html
(accessed April 23, 2010); Darya Korsunskaya, “Interview: More Government Spending Won’t Help Russian Economy—Finance Minister,” Reuters, June 16, 2010,
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE65F13020100616?sp=true
(accessed July 11, 2010).

54
. “‘People Should Smoke and Drink More,’ Says Russian Finance Minister,”
Telegraph
, Sept. 1, 2010,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7975521/People-should-smoke-and-drink-more-says-Russian-finance-minister.html
(accessed Sept. 11, 2010).