ECONOMY
Have Russians Really Cut Back on Drinking?
July 22, 2025
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Tatiana Rybakova
Journalist and writer
Journalist Tatiana Rybakova examines the reported decline in alcohol production and even consumption in Russia and finds that the official statistics do not reflect less drinking but rather a shift toward unregulated alcohol and drugs.
A Russian Wine store in St Petersburg. Source: VK
Between January and June, total output of strong alcoholic beverages in Russia plunged 16.1% year over year to 79.30 million decaliters. Vodka production declined 10.9% to 31.38 million decaliters, while cognac production was down 17.0% at 3.45 million decaliters.
Weak alcoholic beverages are also seeing a downward trend – for three years now and with both production and consumption falling. Last year, for the first time since 2000, per capita alcohol consumption dropped below 8 liters for the year – enough to reclassify Russia from a heavy-drinking to an average-drinking nation.
The data is striking: Russians have typically responded to stress and troubles by drinking more. Yet now, during a prolonged period of heightened anxiety in society, they are drinking less. Is this really the case?
Too expensive
The decline can be attributed to rising excise taxes and higher minimum retail prices, according to demographer Alexei Raksha. Excise rates have been raised twice since the start of 2024: in May 2024 and again in January 2025. The most recent increase set the 2025 rate for alcohol above 18% ABV at RUB 740 per liter of pure ethyl alcohol, up from RUB 643. For weaker alcohol, the rate rose from RUB 141 to RUB 148.
Minimum retail prices rose even more: that for vodka was hiked from RUB 299 to RUB 349 per half liter; cognac from RUB 556 to RUB 651; and brandy and other distillate-based alcohols (excluding cognac) from RUB 403 to RUB 472.
At the same time, higher import duties on alcohol have fueled a boom in counterfeit whiskey, rum and other spirits.
Weak alcoholic beverages are also seeing a downward trend – for three years now and with both production and consumption falling. Last year, for the first time since 2000, per capita alcohol consumption dropped below 8 liters for the year – enough to reclassify Russia from a heavy-drinking to an average-drinking nation.
The data is striking: Russians have typically responded to stress and troubles by drinking more. Yet now, during a prolonged period of heightened anxiety in society, they are drinking less. Is this really the case?
Too expensive
The decline can be attributed to rising excise taxes and higher minimum retail prices, according to demographer Alexei Raksha. Excise rates have been raised twice since the start of 2024: in May 2024 and again in January 2025. The most recent increase set the 2025 rate for alcohol above 18% ABV at RUB 740 per liter of pure ethyl alcohol, up from RUB 643. For weaker alcohol, the rate rose from RUB 141 to RUB 148.
Minimum retail prices rose even more: that for vodka was hiked from RUB 299 to RUB 349 per half liter; cognac from RUB 556 to RUB 651; and brandy and other distillate-based alcohols (excluding cognac) from RUB 403 to RUB 472.
At the same time, higher import duties on alcohol have fueled a boom in counterfeit whiskey, rum and other spirits.
“Drinking – especially strong alcohol – has actually become expensive.”
Red Box gin, produced by Cherepovets Distillery. Source: VK
In response, consumers are turning to counterfeit and homemade spirits or to beverages seen as more “exotic” than vodka, or both. “Cheap vodka costs between RUB 350 and RUB 400, and cheap whiskey RUB 500,” explains alcohol market expert Vadim Drobiz. “A small share of consumers with new money in 2021-24 switched from cheap vodka to cheap whiskey, rather than moving up the vodka price ladder – whiskey seems to have much higher prestige.” According to Drobiz’s estimates, vodka sales between 2017 and 2024 rose just 4.5%, while sales of other spirits surged more than 76.0%.
But in 2025, Drobiz says, with disposable income no longer growing, the situation has reversed: whereas between 2017 and 2024, consumers of counterfeit and homemade alcohol had moved to the legal vodka market (and others upgraded to more expensive spirits), now they are going back.
Moreover, these so-called “exotic” Russian spirits often fall short in terms of quality. According to Drobiz, most domestically produced whiskey is not aged in oak barrels for years, but rather steeped in oak chips for a few weeks. “Russian rum” is often made not from sugarcane but from concentrate with the same alcohol used for vodka.
Even Armenian cognac, a longtime Russian favorite, was found to be 85% counterfeit, according to a recent investigation.
With the poor quality of alcohol “import substitution,” consumers have little incentive to pay a premium for legality. And vodka has always been easily replaced by moonshine.
But in 2025, Drobiz says, with disposable income no longer growing, the situation has reversed: whereas between 2017 and 2024, consumers of counterfeit and homemade alcohol had moved to the legal vodka market (and others upgraded to more expensive spirits), now they are going back.
Moreover, these so-called “exotic” Russian spirits often fall short in terms of quality. According to Drobiz, most domestically produced whiskey is not aged in oak barrels for years, but rather steeped in oak chips for a few weeks. “Russian rum” is often made not from sugarcane but from concentrate with the same alcohol used for vodka.
Even Armenian cognac, a longtime Russian favorite, was found to be 85% counterfeit, according to a recent investigation.
With the poor quality of alcohol “import substitution,” consumers have little incentive to pay a premium for legality. And vodka has always been easily replaced by moonshine.
“Meanwhile, there is no way to measure the scale of consumption of counterfeit alcohol today.”
Previously, experts assessed it indirectly by monitoring male mortality, which tended to rise with increased counterfeit alcohol circulation. But Rosstat has now shut down access to all demographic statistics. “Neither we nor the Ministry of Health can test this hypothesis indirectly,” Raksha says.
Lies, damned lies and statistics
“In a time when [access to] statistical indicators is being shut down and they are being constantly manipulated, we should react to all such news with caution,” notes Vasiliy Vlassov, MD, a distinguished professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Even if the data on the decline in the production of strong alcohol is true, he argues, this does not mean a decline in consumption. He continues:
The thing is that the path from the tank to packaging and all sorts of bureaucratic processes can cause delays, and what looks like a decrease in production may in fact mean that there was a delay somewhere. For example, a decade ago a monthslong delay in the introduction of the labeling system hit the market hard (obednila), which even led to a decrease in consumption indicators and, as some believe, to an improvement in the health of Russian men.
Vlassov adds that even increases in mortality are not always linked to illicit alcohol consumption. “Widespread moonshine consumption is not associated with greater health risks. Counterfeit alcohol – yes, sometimes poisonings happen. Group cases, linked to the use of toxic alcohol. But these are relatively rare incidents that happen all over the world – even in Muslim countries.”
Vlassov notes that legal alcohol remains readily available in big cities. In contrast, counterfeit spirits and moonshine are far more common in smaller towns and rural areas, where they are cheaper and make up for what can be considerable shortages of vodka in stores.
People are drinking less, but not everyone
Still, Raksha believes that this year the consumption of strong alcohol has really decreased. Maxim Chernigovsky, a lecturer at RANEPA and CEO of the Alcohol Market Professionals Club, notes many Russians are switching to beer, ciders and mead, which fall outside of the Rosalkogoltabakkontrol data.
A practicing psychologist who we will call Yevgenia (name changed, as the person is in Russia) believes that young people now prefer low-alcohol cocktails and older people beer.
Lies, damned lies and statistics
“In a time when [access to] statistical indicators is being shut down and they are being constantly manipulated, we should react to all such news with caution,” notes Vasiliy Vlassov, MD, a distinguished professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Even if the data on the decline in the production of strong alcohol is true, he argues, this does not mean a decline in consumption. He continues:
The thing is that the path from the tank to packaging and all sorts of bureaucratic processes can cause delays, and what looks like a decrease in production may in fact mean that there was a delay somewhere. For example, a decade ago a monthslong delay in the introduction of the labeling system hit the market hard (obednila), which even led to a decrease in consumption indicators and, as some believe, to an improvement in the health of Russian men.
Vlassov adds that even increases in mortality are not always linked to illicit alcohol consumption. “Widespread moonshine consumption is not associated with greater health risks. Counterfeit alcohol – yes, sometimes poisonings happen. Group cases, linked to the use of toxic alcohol. But these are relatively rare incidents that happen all over the world – even in Muslim countries.”
Vlassov notes that legal alcohol remains readily available in big cities. In contrast, counterfeit spirits and moonshine are far more common in smaller towns and rural areas, where they are cheaper and make up for what can be considerable shortages of vodka in stores.
People are drinking less, but not everyone
Still, Raksha believes that this year the consumption of strong alcohol has really decreased. Maxim Chernigovsky, a lecturer at RANEPA and CEO of the Alcohol Market Professionals Club, notes many Russians are switching to beer, ciders and mead, which fall outside of the Rosalkogoltabakkontrol data.
A practicing psychologist who we will call Yevgenia (name changed, as the person is in Russia) believes that young people now prefer low-alcohol cocktails and older people beer.
“Meanwhile, because of the Ukraine war, slowly taking shape is a large category of Russian men who suffer from stress or PTSD.”
The war has been a stress factor for the whole country, but for those on the front line, the stress is much worse. Mobilized soldiers and kontraktniki are forced to fight until the end of the war, while the previous practice of demobilizing convicts after six months of service has ended. Soldiers likely still drink their stress away today, as they did with the ration of 100 grams of vodka in World War II.
Here is Yevgenia’s experience:
None of my clients are directly involved in the special military operation, but there are relatives of dead men and wives whose husbands are at the front. But during their therapy, I have communicated with soldiers. PTSD is more common among mobilized soldiers. They ended up at war against their will, no one takes pity on them and they are used in the most dangerous segments of the front line.
Kontraktniki are generally more psychologically prepared for what awaits them. Assuming, of course, they were not pressured into signing the contract. For convicts, conditions in the army are not so different from prison, but there is at least more freedom. And many of them are less troubled by the risk of death: after all, criminals tend to have a lower sense of risk, otherwise they would not have committed crimes in the first place.
Dmitri, who asked to remain anonymous and speaks vaguely about his activities related to supplying the Russian war machine in Ukraine, admits soldiers are drinking moonshine and counterfeit alcohol and taking drugs. “For the most forward men, there is no time to consume. It is in the rear where they drink. There, there is plenty of drugs and moonshine. There are no alcohol stores at the front,” he jokes.
He puts kontraktniki into one of two groups: convicts or chronic alcoholics. Dmitri elaborates:
The former use drugs more – it is easier to bring drugs into prison than alcohol, and the effects of use are less obvious. Mostly, they use cheap synthetic drugs. Hashish (anasha) is considered a “healthy” product. The chronic alcoholics drink everything that burns. They consider moonshine the healthiest alcohol. The rest – mobilized men, men who signed a contract after conscription service or during a [criminal] investigation – usually join either the first or the second group, it all depends on the person.
In Russia, stress is traditionally “treated” with alcohol, Yevgenia admits. Sure, in recent years, especially the younger generation has begun to see psychologists and psychotherapists more and take antidepressants. “But at the front – what antidepressants? There are actually military psychologists, but they are in the deep rear. What their qualifications are, how well they know how to treat PTSD – I do not know. Meanwhile, [100 grams of vodka] for front-line soldiers – this, you could say, is our national tradition (skrepa). Everyone sees it as normal,” says Yevgenia.
Probably, she adds, those fighting in Ukraine from Russia’s Muslim regions, where alcohol is frowned upon but marijuana is not, use drugs instead of alcohol.
In December 2023, Vladimir Putin put the number of Russian troops in Ukraine at 617,000, including the 300,000 mobilized in autumn 2022. Considering that the intensity of the fighting has not declined since then, we can assume that number has not decreased either.
It is hardly possible to estimate reliably how many Russians have fought in Ukraine, but the total losses of killed, seriously wounded, captured and missing on the Russian side, as of June 2025, are thought to be 1 million.
Here is Yevgenia’s experience:
None of my clients are directly involved in the special military operation, but there are relatives of dead men and wives whose husbands are at the front. But during their therapy, I have communicated with soldiers. PTSD is more common among mobilized soldiers. They ended up at war against their will, no one takes pity on them and they are used in the most dangerous segments of the front line.
Kontraktniki are generally more psychologically prepared for what awaits them. Assuming, of course, they were not pressured into signing the contract. For convicts, conditions in the army are not so different from prison, but there is at least more freedom. And many of them are less troubled by the risk of death: after all, criminals tend to have a lower sense of risk, otherwise they would not have committed crimes in the first place.
Dmitri, who asked to remain anonymous and speaks vaguely about his activities related to supplying the Russian war machine in Ukraine, admits soldiers are drinking moonshine and counterfeit alcohol and taking drugs. “For the most forward men, there is no time to consume. It is in the rear where they drink. There, there is plenty of drugs and moonshine. There are no alcohol stores at the front,” he jokes.
He puts kontraktniki into one of two groups: convicts or chronic alcoholics. Dmitri elaborates:
The former use drugs more – it is easier to bring drugs into prison than alcohol, and the effects of use are less obvious. Mostly, they use cheap synthetic drugs. Hashish (anasha) is considered a “healthy” product. The chronic alcoholics drink everything that burns. They consider moonshine the healthiest alcohol. The rest – mobilized men, men who signed a contract after conscription service or during a [criminal] investigation – usually join either the first or the second group, it all depends on the person.
In Russia, stress is traditionally “treated” with alcohol, Yevgenia admits. Sure, in recent years, especially the younger generation has begun to see psychologists and psychotherapists more and take antidepressants. “But at the front – what antidepressants? There are actually military psychologists, but they are in the deep rear. What their qualifications are, how well they know how to treat PTSD – I do not know. Meanwhile, [100 grams of vodka] for front-line soldiers – this, you could say, is our national tradition (skrepa). Everyone sees it as normal,” says Yevgenia.
Probably, she adds, those fighting in Ukraine from Russia’s Muslim regions, where alcohol is frowned upon but marijuana is not, use drugs instead of alcohol.
In December 2023, Vladimir Putin put the number of Russian troops in Ukraine at 617,000, including the 300,000 mobilized in autumn 2022. Considering that the intensity of the fighting has not declined since then, we can assume that number has not decreased either.
It is hardly possible to estimate reliably how many Russians have fought in Ukraine, but the total losses of killed, seriously wounded, captured and missing on the Russian side, as of June 2025, are thought to be 1 million.
“The approximate number of men who signed a contract to serve (though not all of them take part in combat) is at least 1.5 million.”
Perhaps they account for the decline in the official drinking statistics: they do not go to stores where legal alcohol is sold. This, together with the widespread use of illicit alcohol in the provinces, makes any official estimates unreliable.
So, probably, Russians are not drinking less – they have just started drinking less legal alcohol. Plus, part of the population has switched to drugs, primarily cheap synthetic ones.
Still, among urban, more educated, younger and more prosperous Russians, strong alcohol seems to be really giving way to low-alcohol drinks and antidepressants. “A vacuum will always be filled. A person must cope with stress somehow. If they are used to numbing it with alcohol, they will do that. If they do not have that habit, they may choose a less toxic way,” Yevgenia believes.
So, probably, Russians are not drinking less – they have just started drinking less legal alcohol. Plus, part of the population has switched to drugs, primarily cheap synthetic ones.
Still, among urban, more educated, younger and more prosperous Russians, strong alcohol seems to be really giving way to low-alcohol drinks and antidepressants. “A vacuum will always be filled. A person must cope with stress somehow. If they are used to numbing it with alcohol, they will do that. If they do not have that habit, they may choose a less toxic way,” Yevgenia believes.
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