Thursday, February 09, 2006
What's A Russian Without Vodka?
This has got to be a sign of the end-times: while the rest of the world worries about oil shortages, Russia is running short of vodka!
From BelfastTelegraph:
And, the end is near:
The problem, of course, is Russian bureaucratic red tape, which they've developed to an art form over the past few decades:
Statistically, the average Russian consumes about 14 liters of alcohol a year, most of it straight vodka, which they garnish with pickles, salted tomatoes or bread.
Prince Vladimir is reported to have said: "Russia's mirth is drinking. We cannot live without it."
But, as long as the Belgians don't run out of chocolate -- maybe we can still be okay!
StetsonTip PubliusPundit
(image from Pravda, from an article on bootlegging last year) ¶ 8:00 AM
This has got to be a sign of the end-times: while the rest of the world worries about oil shortages, Russia is running short of vodka!
From BelfastTelegraph:
Stocks of vodka, Russia's national tipple, are running dangerously low because of a Soviet-style bureaucratic blunder that has brought production to a halt.
Hardly a bottle of the grain-based spirit has been made since the beginning of the year, and as the mercury hovers around minus 20C, many vodka warehouses across the country are empty.
And, the end is near:
"Could Russia completely run out of vodka in 40 days?" was the apocalyptic front-page headline of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper yesterday, which published advice from a panel of politicians and celebrities on how to live without vodka and a cartoon of a man wringing a bottle of vodka as if it were wet laundry so as to extract every last drop.
Although supermarket shelves are not yet denuded of the Russian national drink, manufacturers have warned that people are rapidly drinking what is left over from 2005, and that stocks will not last indefinitely. They have also warned that supplies of bootleg vodka, which has a record of poisoning, blinding and killing people, are increasing as black marketeers rush to fill the vacuum.
The problem, of course, is Russian bureaucratic red tape, which they've developed to an art form over the past few decades:
There's an anti-counterfeiting law which came into force on 1 January, stipulating that every bottle of vodka must carry an excise duty stamp. Not enough of the new labels were made, and most of those that were have not yet made it to factories. It is, manufacturers complain, a typical case of gross incompetence on the part of the chinovniki (officials) who run the country.
Statistically, the average Russian consumes about 14 liters of alcohol a year, most of it straight vodka, which they garnish with pickles, salted tomatoes or bread.
Prince Vladimir is reported to have said: "Russia's mirth is drinking. We cannot live without it."
But, as long as the Belgians don't run out of chocolate -- maybe we can still be okay!
StetsonTip PubliusPundit
(image from Pravda, from an article on bootlegging last year) ¶ 8:00 AM
