OSCAR WILDE may never have met a Russian peasant but many have taken to heart his observation that work is the curse of the drinking classes.

So many in fact that a former millionaire businessman has set up an organisation devoted to finding sober men for employers to hire.

German Sterligov established his Register of Non-Drinking Men to counter rampant alcoholism, particularly in the countryside, where unemployment and the hardships of post-Soviet life have prompted many to drown their troubles in vodka with even greater commitment than usual.

Mr Sterligov, who was one of post-communist Russia’s first millionaires before giving it all up to become a sheep farmer, plans to establish committees of women to judge whether applicants are telling the truth about their relationship with alcohol. “We won’t need these committees in the villages because everybody there already knows who the alcoholics are, but they will be needed in the towns,” he told The Times.

“We want to use women whose husbands either are or have been alcoholics because they will have the necessary experience to spot the tell-tale signs. If they decide that someone is a drunk he won’t be allowed to register, but if he appeals and is proved right then we will pay him $100 (£53).”

Companies will be asked to pay a fee to examine the register for suitable candidates. Organisers claim to have signed up 126 sober men so far.

Mr Sterligov said that he gave up drinking a decade ago. “Before, when I was a millionaire, I used to drink all the time. Then I realised that I was on the road to becoming an alcoholic and stopped overnight.”

The entrepreneur, a staunch Russian nationalist, made millions by starting a commodities brokerage in 1991 and later set up a highly profitable business selling fancy coffins for relatives of the country’s wealthy new elite. He once employed 2,500 people but lost most of his money on unsuccessful political campaigns, including an attempt to challenge for the presidency in 2003. He sold his Moscow mansion and moved his family to a small farm 100 miles away, where they live without a radio or television.

The sobriety register has won support from Dmitry Zelenin, the Governor of Tver, the largest region in central Russia. Mr Sterligov and his partners Vladimir Samoilov, a senior official at the KamAz truck company, and a film director, Kirill Mozgalevsky, said they planned to extend it across Russia.

Alcoholism, particularly among men, ranks as Russia’s third most serious health problem after heart disease and cancer, and kills between 40,000 and 50,000 people every year.

Soviet leaders failed repeatedly to curb alcoholism. Average male life expectancy has plummeted to less than 59 years, compared to 72 for women. A 15-year-old boy in Russia now has a 48 per cent chance of dying before the age of 60, according to the World Health Organisation.

Alcohol-related deaths are also seen as a key factor in a demographic catastrophe that threatens to depopulate vast areas of Russia. The country has lost 6 million people since 1992 and the population is predicted to shrink 30 per cent by the middle of the century.

The demon drink has a serious impact on Russia’s economy. A 1995 study found that regular drunkenness affected as many as 60 per cent of manual and 21 per cent of white-collar staff.

SPIRIT OF RUSSIA

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