Moscow, 14 September: Health experts say that Russia needs state monopoly on alcohol (sales), given the high mortality rate from counterfeit alcohol poisoning.

"State monopoly on alcohol would be a very timely and needed measure," the head of Rospotrebnadzor (the Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection), Russia's chief public health official Gennadiy Onishchenko, has told Interfax on Monday (14 September).

He added that after state monopoly on alcohol in Russia was scrapped in 1991 a vigorous upsurge in the consumption of alcoholic drinks, especially of substitutes, had begun.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, nearly 3m Russians indulge in alcohol abuse today: in 2007 alone, over 75,000 Russian citizens prematurely died from alcohol consumption.

"Up to 60 per cent of all our vodka is produced illegally," Onishchenko said.

He added that state monopoly on alcohol could become an important measure in tackling alcoholism in Russia. "On the whole, the (state) budget would benefit and counterfeit alcohol would cease to exist. When there is state monopoly, this area can be regulated in a tougher and more effective way," Onishchenko said. (Passage omitted)

(Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 0846 gmt 11 Sep 09 reported that Russia's President Dmitriy Medvedev had ordered the government to develop a set of measures aimed to combat the sale of illegally-produced alcohol.)

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