At New Year, Medvedev resolves: no more cheap vodka

The World

It looks like one of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s New Year’s resolutions is to encourage all Russians to think twice about reaching for their favorite drink.

As of January 1st, he’s setting a higher minimum price for Vodka in Russia. It’s an attempt to cut alcoholism in the country with the highest per-capita alcohol consumption in the world.

But how popular is a forced New Year’s detox with ordinary Russians? We ask Boris Maksimov, a reporter with the BBC Russian service; he joins us from London.

Are you with The World?

The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.

When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.