PRESIDENT PUTIN suggested yesterday establishing a state monopoly for spirits to crack down on illegal production of counterfeit vodka and other drinks. “We have 40,000 citizens dying each year from products of poor quality,” he told a Kaliningrad audience.

Unlike his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, Mr Putin is a modest drinker. His remarks reflect growing concern that the hasty break-up of the communist monopoly on the production and sales of spirits in the early 1990s was a mistake that is costing lives.

About 700 Russians a day die from alcohol-related illnesses, according to the World Health Organisation. “The country is killing itself,” Mr Putin said.

The WHO estimates that the average adult consumes 14 litres of pure alcohol each year, mainly vodka. As much as 60 per cent of vodka is produced and sold illegally, according to state statistics. Last year inspectors found that every third shop was selling counterfeit products.

The illegal manufacture of spirits costs the Government about £1 billion a year in lost tax revenues. Taxes from vodka production were a prime source of revenues for both the tsars and the Soviet Union.

Because spirits sales are so profitable, domestic and foreign sellers of brands such as Smirnoff are likely to oppose any monopoly moves.

Government attempts at a crackdown have not always met with success. Twenty years ago Mikhail Gorbachev, then the USSR president, tried to impose strict limits on vodka consumption — only to create a massive sugar shortage as Russians used it to make their own moonshine.

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Congo's rangers risk their lives to guard gorillas
• Pearl farming in China losing its lustre
• Axl Rose mystery as album arrives at last