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Russia suspends vodka production

Waiting in a bread line may be one thing but doing without their beloved vodka is quite another. Moscovites have descended on liquor resellers and are stocking up. Prices for the precious liquid are s…

Waiting in a bread line may be one thing but doing without their beloved vodka is quite another. Moscovites have descended on liquor resellers and are stocking up. Prices for the precious liquid are soaring and boot-leggers are rubbing their hands with glee. This disastrous situation is not because of a new prohibitionist bent on the part of the government but rather a move to crack down on boot-leggers and ensure that tax money flows into government coffers by obligating producers to seal their bottles with a new revenue stamp. Government bureaucracy being what it is, the stamps have yet to be delivered to the factories. Bottles without the new regional stamps are illegal and therefore can“t be sold. The new ruling went into effect 1 June and the almost 700 local producers can only sell bottles without the new stamp if they were produced in May or earlier. Production has been temporarily halted and there is only enough stock on hand to last about a week. Hence the panic. “If the chaos continues there will be a “Vodka Revolution“”, says German Klymovski, director of marketing for the company which owns the new brand “Flagman“. He may not be joking. In stores, the queues are getting ever longer and this “increases the amount of contraband – bad for the health and for government revenues” declared Pavel Shapkin, president of the alcohol producers. After gas and oil, vodka is the largest revenue-earner for the Russian government – some US$ 4.7 million a day. So by introducing the new revenue stamps, the government is hoping to crack down on clandestine production which accounts for 50% of vodka consumed. So far only the boot-leggers are benefiting.

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