Russia: 75 per cent of alcohol sold last year was beer

While Russians still drink a lot of vodka, they are consuming ever more beer and other drinks with low alcohol levels, according to Reuters, April 10. The production of such drinks increased six-fold between 1998 and 2006, and sales were multiplied by three over the same period.

Last year, 12 billion litres of alcohol were sold in Russia, of which 75 per cent was beer. The number of alcohol-linked deaths meanwhile dropped to 28,386 in 2006 from 40,877 a year earlier, but they still represented 12 per cent of all deaths in Russia.