Hard drinking stuck to the image of Russians as a nation, but is it still true that people in Russia consume too much alcohol at all times? In other words, do Russians still drink a lot and frequently in 2020?

Not all Russians are hard drinkers

A recent survey by Tutu.ru, on online booking services for Russians, revealed that 33% of travellers don’t drink alcohol at all. Further 24% limit their alcohol consumption to 1-2 glasses a couple of time during the vacation, only in a social setting in a group.

So, more than half of Russians do not really drink alcohol.

Drinking daily or every second day, but not to excess, is typical of 29% of Russian tourists. Further 6% do it only if the booze is included in the pre-paid package along with meals at the hotel.

For instance, Turkey and Egypt, frequented by travellers from Russia, offer such options along with low-cost group tours, which would typically include a glass or vine at dinner and lunch (or a bottle of vine per table). It’s also not an excess amount but provided with the meal, so people use the opportunity, since it’s anyway paid for.

Thus, 1 in 3 people from Russia does consume alcoholic beverages daily during vacations, but in limited amounts which would fit with typical consumptions by westerners.

Only 8% of those surveyed admitted to drinking often and to excess during vacations.

Of course, not all Russians can afford to travel. Most of them spend vacations at home or on the “dacha” (a countryside cottage where locals grow vegetables and berries for home consumption). It is also known that people in the lower socioeconomic strata drink more, since this is a cheap form of entertainment for them.

The drive to lower consumption of alcohol in Russia

According to Veronika Skvortsova, the former minister of health of Russia, the amount of alcohol consumed per person in Russia dropped nearly by half in recent years: from 18 litres in 2011 to 9.3 litres in 2018.

The Russian government keeps increasing taxes on sales of alcoholic beverages in Russia, with the view to bring down consumption, as well as raise more money for the budget. According to sales statistics, the consumption indeed is going down, however, not all is that simple.

Large amounts of alcohol are produced in Russia illegally. The estimations are that the volume of illegal trade is over 1/3 of the officially sold alcohol in the country: 6.38 litres per person is sold legally and 2.6 illegally. The targets are to lower the consumption to the levels of 6.15 litres (official) and 2.2 litres (unofficial) by 2022.

According to the World Health Organization, Russia is on the third place in Europe by consumption of illegally produced alcohol. Moldova, another former USSR republic, is #1.

The main issue in fighting illegal sales of alcoholic beverages, especially counterfeit vodka, is the high profit margin of this business.

Nearly every third crime in Russia is committed under the influence of alcohol, RIA News reported. In 2019 the number of such cases dropped by 8.5% as compared to the previous year. The absolute number of criminal cases where the perpetrator was under the influence of drugs dropped even more, by 45.7%.

In general, WHO’s statistics show that consumption of spirits dropped in Russia by 43% from 2003 to 2016. Among the reasons is the fact that more Russians now own cars (Russia maintains zero alcohol limit for drivers), popularization of the healthy way of life and gyms, as well as higher range of cheap entertainment options such as movie theatres and electronic game centres.

Scientists predict that in 2020 Russians will be consuming 3 times less spirits than in 2016, IZ.ru reported. The conclusions were achieved by projecting the data by Rosstat, the official government’s statistics committee.

Read also:

• Is alcohol a problem in Russia?
• The real reason why we love coffee and beer
• Would you drink vodka from Chernobyl?
• 43 percent of Russian men and 25 percent of Russian women smoke