Sales of alcohol fell by 15% in Russia in...

Sales of spirits fell by 15-16%, while sales of other alcoholic drinks fell by 14.5%, Vadim Drobiz from the federal centre for the study of the alcohol market told journalists.

A report released earlier this year said the average Russian drinks 17 liters of spirits a year, with some 2 billion liters of alcohol being consumed in Russia annually. Alcohol is also involved in some 80% of murders and 40% of suicides in the country.

Prohibition was briefly introduced in the Soviet Union in 1985 in an attempt to put a halt to the rampant alcoholism that was taking its toll on the nation"s economy and health system. But the policy was an utter failure, and the illicit production of moonshine - "samogon"- rocketed, not to mention a sudden rise in sales of medicinal and industrial spirit. The never-popular policy of prohibition was later quietly dropped.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, modern Russia quickly found itself engulfed in an epidemic of alcoholism of catastrophic

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