Cheap and illicit alcohol kills more than half of all Russian men and women in their most productive years and the government must act to reverse the trend, a study to be published in The Lancet at the weekend said.
“Excessive alcohol consumption in Russia, particularly by men, has in several recent years caused more than half of all the deaths at ages of 15-54 years,” The Lancet said.
The research conducted in three industrial cities — Tomsk, Barnaul and Biysk — said “excess mortality from liver cancer, throat cancer, liver disease and pancreatic disease is largely or wholly because alcohol caused the disease that caused death.”
High mortality from tuberculosis and pneumonia may be partly a result of increased exposure to infection, weak immunity, or decreased likelihood of cure, the research found.
Russia’s mortality rate in people aged 15 to 54 was more than five times higher for men and three times higher for women than in Western Europe, the study showed.
Alcohol is responsible for about three-quarters of the deaths of all Russian men aged 15 to 54 and about half of all deaths of Russian women of the same age, the data showed.
Russia must stop or tax the illicit alcohol output, the article said, adding that this in turn would mean “confrontation with organized criminals and corrupt officials ... All that is needed is the political will to make public health a priority.”
“Each year 1.3 million people die from cardio-vascular diseases in Russia,” said David Zaridze, head of the Russian Cancer Research Center and principal author of the study.
“Based on our investigation, it is possible to suggest that at least a third of these deaths is linked to alcohol consumption and not to any specific heart pathology,” he said.
Alcohol-related deaths also include suicides, murders, drowning and deaths in fires, he said.
A UN report in April said that poor diet, leading to heart disease, heavy drinking and the high incidence of violent deaths may cut Russia’s present population of some 142 million to around 131 million by 2025.
Store shelves across Russia are laden with cheap vodka that costs between 60 rubles (US$1.92) and 80 rubles per half liter bottle, while Russia’s illicit alcohol production is estimated to account for at least 50 percent of consumption.
Alexander Nemtsov, a department chief at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, estimated Russia’s annual consumption at 15 liters of pure alcohol per capita, including children and elderly people. This compares with just 6 liters in 1864, he said.
He estimated Russia had some 2.5 million registered alcoholics and about the same number of unregistered ones.
“Drunkards, not alcoholics, are the main threat to demography,” Nemtsov said. “Heavy drinkers make up 40 percent of Russian males, but this figure may be bigger.”
The proportion of male and female drinkers is 4 to 1, he said.
Approximately 30,000 people — twice the number the Soviet Union lost during its 10-year war in Afghanistan — die from alcohol poisoning in Russia each year.
Psychiatrist Nemtsov said fighting drinking in Russia was an uphill task, because cheap vodka was only part of the problem.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS