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Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP - Getty Images, file
Russians, like this Muscovite enjoying some suds at an outdoor pub, will no longer have unfettered access to beer, under a new law that takes effect Jan. 1.
It will be tougher for Russians to cry in their beer in 2013.
Restrictions on when and where beer can be sold go into effect Jan. 1 with a law that declared beer is alcohol, not food.
Under the new rules, beer can only be sold in licensed outlets — not street kiosks, gas stations and bus depots like it has been. Russians won't be able to buy it from shops between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., and beer commercials are a thing of the past.
The limits are part of a government effort to reduce alcohol abuse in Russian, where one in five male deaths are linked to booze, according to world health experts.
Not everyone is toasting the change, however.
The brewing industry warns that the crackdown could make harder alcohol even more popular.
"It will be tougher if you want to buy a beer on the way home from work, or pop down from your apartment," Isaac Sheps, chairman of the Union of Russian Brewers, told London's Daily Telegraph.
"So you have to stock at home. And stocking beer is more problematic than stocking vodka. It's bulky, it's big and there's no room for it in small homes. It's much easier to buy two bottles of vodka and manage for your instant need for alcohol.
"So it's quite ironic that this attempt to improve health and lower alcoholism could have the opposite effect and cause people to drink more harmful spirits," Sheps said.
New laws ban sex with prisoners, hunting with hounds, more
Vodka is king in Russia. Government statistics show the spirit accounted for almost 50 percent of alcohol sales between January and November, while beer rose a bit to 32 percent. Wine had an anemic 10 percent market share. And champagne accounted for 1 percent of sales.
In the past few years, the Russian government has introduced an array of measures aimed at reducing what then-President Dmitri Medvedev called a "national calamity."
"We are used to smoking, drinking, eating a poor diet and doing little sport and then falling ill, and expect to be operated on or take pills to get better," Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy head of the lower house of parliament's health committee, told Bloomberg in October.
“That's got to stop.”
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Who said that the Russia can't be like the U.S Sounds like the government is going to protect the "Vodka Lobby" at any cost. Guess they don't like the "health benefits" of the western lifestyle any better than we do!
Beer is consider food here in New York State. Ask any welfare recipiant. Payments are paid through a credit number system. Popular card swipes are at liquor store ATM's for cash! Ths is the true meaning of free beer. Sad but true!
Less beer in Russia?
Maybe that's why Pukin...er Putin is so darn cranky!
Bet it turns out like their failed government program to have Russians adopt their own kids...they did...but then over 10,000 of the poor kids were returned to orphanages!
Just can't wait to see how this will backfire!
If governments would stop telling us what we are "entitled" to, we would stop expecting it.
Our Constitution tells us we are entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It does NOT say we are entitled to Happiness.... just the pursuit of it.
Are we entitled to health care? If we are, why do we have to pay for it? See the contradiction here? Things like this can drive people crazy. Governments should stop making promises they can't deliver.
It's like the phrase "human rights." That one drives me up the wall. There is no such thing. The only rights people have are the ones the governments and rulers in their country want them to have.
Governments need to stop trying to legislate what we eat and drink. They don't really care; someone who is making a profit somehow has pushed their lobby button... as the first post says, probably the vodka industry.
Now, where are my meds.....
Alright, go to Somalia and enjoy your entitlements you shouldn't expect.
Yeah, the constitution gives us the right to live and via the 2end amendment it also gives nuttbags the right to take life. If you want to end the confusion about governments telling you what you need, then that is easy... We need a society willing to accept certain things in this world must be given in order to fulfill are obligation to humanity and fellow citizens.
Should people be GIVEN medical care? Yeah, they should and that should be enshrined in society just by virtue of empathy for others ( its the right thing to do ). Should people be given cable TV? No, that has nothing to do with existing.
If we, as a society knew and excepted what should be given and also knew and accepted what should not be given, then our government would not have to waste time telling us what we can and can not do.
We run around expecting to be able to dictate what other citizens need and that they should never be given anything, while at the same time expecting that government should not make rules.. Well, If they don't make rules, we would all be killing etch other and letting people die on the street because " no one is entitled to anything "
You want government out of the way? Then breed a society that has empathy and morals and a capability to do what is right.. Until that time, some yoyo in some office in DC will have to tell us how to live, because we cant seem to deal with life without rules laid down for us.
Chowchig and QE137, the 2 types of idiots politicians just love to rape.
In historical terms, beer has long been considered more of a foodstuff than an alcoholic beverage.
No joke. Beer is pretty much the reason civilization started in the Fertile Crescent. All that barley popped up after the ice receded... the rest is history.
For centuries, millenia really, beer has been a staple part of the western diet. Smoking kills. Junk food kills. A sedentary lifestyle kills. But beer??? Come on! Jeez.
When I was younger I used to say Beer is Ok for breakfast as it is like cereal - "grains, barley and wheat"!! Calling it a foodstuff is just a drunken excuse. The Vodka industry here is just whining and have only conjecture to cry about the new law. I am grateful not to drink my Wheaties anymore in part due to laws like this :)
It's the American way. Those of us who have enough intelligence and self control not to drink our breakfast must be punished in order to save those of us who do not.
Mr. Bill, you punish yourself everyday thinking you are so intelligent. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Try something new for the year.......
Argumentum ad Hominem: A class of logical fallacies in which the character or the circumstances of the person making a statement is presented as proof that their statement is untrue or their argument is unsound. Usually used by people who are unwilling or unable to argue the point.
Point proven Mr Bill. LOL
Well, it only took the Russians about 80 years to catch onto this obvious fact.
A single beer give you about 150 calories, so 2 beers are equivalent to 1 regular hamburger of about 300 calories, and since it is really hard to get drunk with just 2 beers, then beer is more like food than alcohol, which is why you get beer belly if you drink a lot of it. Never heard of vodka getting you fat.
Yes, they are so backward when compared to our enlightened society, aren't they?
We always get things right the first time, that's why we have problems with alcohol, smoking and junk food.
A single, 12 ounce beer = 150 calories. A single 1 ounce shot of vodka = 100 calories. Vodka has made many people very fat, a lot faster than beer. In fact, alcohol supplies empty calories that turn into the fat people get on their stomach's, hips, rear ends, etc. The fat ones are usually those that drink the cheap stuff, both beer and vodka, because those people are not savoring, but instead, are pounding.
Well, it becomes a part of food stuff when I make beer bread. I only need one bottle, so what do I do with the rest? Grab a bottle opener and enjoy a brew while I'm baking or when the mood strikes. Hum . . . an ice cold one would taste pretty good right about now - to wash down some hot, spicy rice.
Heavens forbid if Russia ends up like South Korea where everyone has a choice between soju and the Korean beers but not much else. Over there in SK, you can't good dark ale or fermented cider.
Good to know the Russians are just as crazy as we are. Way back under Reagon, ketchup was classified as vegitable for nutritious purposes in school lunches.
Ketchup is still considered a vegetable as a cost cutting measure and because children don't like vegetables, especially the overcooked ones.
Ketchup is derived from a fruit.
So let's classify it as a fruit and we can STILL add it to the nutritional list.
They drink, smoke and have a poor diet?
Are you sure they are not talking about the U.S.A.?
All they need to add is: "And we have an obesity problem" to be just like us.
Ummm....no, not even!
First, they need to cut their alcohol consumption 4 times to get down to US levels!
Then they need to get rid of their EX-KGB agent President who holds kids hostage if needed to get his ways. Russians know he does not give a ##%%@ about the orphans, just getting even with the US...and other western countries!
UUUMMMM, Beer
So what? In South L.A. crystal meth is considered food.
Wow, a country of alcoholics and big shots, must of been divine action that we survived a clod war without a nuclear exchange.
It will take a few more generations before we can trust those Russians.
At least a few more generations....
If they can't be trusted to take care of their own kids, why the heck should we trust them??
Beer ,Bread and Baloney is just about all you need to get by !!!! And maybe some love and chocolate kisses to top it off ;-)
Feta cheese or any kind of cheese - got to include that (along with blackberries).
I've always enjoyed an ice-cold malt sandwich!
You have to stop the culture that says getting drunk is good, manly, acceptable, whatever.
Not too sure changing how you define beer will do that.
One in 5 deaths related to alcohol says something must be done.
You see the same mentality in our youth. It was there in mine too.
Drinking can be pleasurable without the drunk, learn to limit yourself.
I think the decline in quality beer over the past generation or two is a big part of this.
You can't enjoy drinking Bud Lite. You can only hold your breath and gulp it down like poison.
As a fellow Oregonian, I understand what real beer is. I make my own, as my father and both grandfathers did. It's good. It's satisfying. And it's something to be had in moderation.
The real problem here, as with so many other things, is the absolute crap that is allowed to be sold in the name of cost cutting and progress.
I have to say that by not drinking mass quantities, quality beer and wine fit my budget.
Pretty much the attitude I take with most things. I like quality chocolate and have no use for big name candy bars so I eat less chocolate. I live in a small home by a river instead of a over sized house in the burb's (like I used to have). Eating out; a small delicious meal over a huge plate of glop.
Quality over quantity is comfortable.
In heaven there is no beer,that's why we drink it here,and when we are gone from here all our friends will be drinking all the beer.
Sung as a polka.
Keep repeating same verse until you fall down and go to sleep.
Haven't heard that one in a long time, but do remember folks singing it with great enthusiasm.
"We are used to smoking, drinking, eating a poor diet and doing little sport and then falling ill, and expect to be operated on or take pills to get better," Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy head of the lower house of parliament's health committee, told Bloomberg in October.
And that ONE statement tells you why they really are a "wanna be" leader in the International Community. At least here in the great U.S.A. we actually know our limitations, for the most part. Oh, wait.........WE (the U.S.A.) already have these laws and Russia is following suit.
"We are used to smoking, drinking, eating a poor diet and doing little sport and then falling ill, and expect to be operated on or take pills to get better,"
- seems to sum it up right there!
Glad to see they are finally realizing that beer is alcohol and not food. Now they need to take the next step into realizing that vodka isn't medicine!
Russia is so lost, Putun is a total dic. Russia could be a great country, but with the leadership and thought process, they are dommed..
Welcome to the USA under liberal rule, comrade.
So true...so sad.
A country where children are thought very little of, chained (or cribbed) in their orphanages. Yes, Putin, screw up your kids and that will screw up your nations future!
wow , i will move to russia now .....
damn....I am going to cancel my trip to Russia - I was going there for the food........................
Okay!
Now they figured out a way to tax broke assed Russians even more.
AND give to give to the socialist collective.
Yet, I bet Vodka is still considered tap water.
Just one more reason the Soviet Union lost the Cold War.
The "cold war" was a scam... nobody won because it wasn't a "war", it was a means for both governments to control it's civilians through the use of political propaganda.
Come on for crying out loud BEER is food !!
Leave the poor ruskies alone they know what is best !