Alcohol consumption in Russia has dropped by 43% since 2003, according to a report published on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The Russian Federation has long been considered one of the heaviest-drinking countries in the world," the report said, adding that alcohol was a major contributor to a spike in deaths in the 1990s.

"However, in recent years these trends have been reversed."

The WHO report suggests that Russia's reduction in alcohol-related disease provides a strong argument for an effective alcohol policy as a requirement for long and healthy lives.

Russia's sports-loving president, Vladimir Putin, has introduced a number of measures encouraging Russians to live healthier lifestyles.

These positive choices have resulted in a higher life expectancy, which increased in 2018 to 68 years for men and 78 years for women. In the early 1990s, male life expectancy was just 57 years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin toasts Chinese President Xi Jinping with Russian vodka during the Eastern Economic Forum in September 2018 in Vladivostok, Russia

How did Russia buck the trend?

Raising alcohol excise taxes

Introducing minimum unit pricing on vodka in 2003 and gradually increasing it

Expanding minimum pricing to other alcoholic beverages

Banning off-premises alcohol sales after 11 p.m.

Introducing an alcohol marketing blackout

Restricting alcohol availability in some regions

'Bootleg booze'

The drop in consumption was also driven by a steep decline in demand for illegally produced alcohol, the study showed.

"The dramatic decline in consumption of homemade, smuggled or illegally produced alcohol in the Russian Federation is attributable to the government's adoption of evidence-based alcohol control policies," said the WHO's Carina Ferreira-Borges.

"These results show that measures such as the introduction of monitoring systems, price increases and limited alcohol availability work to save lives and health system costs. I trust that other countries in Europe will adopt similar policies to protect people's health."

Earlier WHO research showed Russian adults now drink less alcohol than their German and French counterparts.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian Matryoshka dolls The popular souvenir from Russia, a lathed wooden doll dressed as a female peasant and containing several smaller versions of herself all the way down to a baby, was invented and designed by the folk craft painter Sergey Malyutin. He was inspired to create the so-called Russian nesting doll in 1896 after receiving a hollow "Daruma" Buddha doll on a journey to Japan with his wife.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian vodka "Russians are heavy drinkers." You've heard that before, right? But it's not completely true. According to the World Health Organization, Russia landed at number 16 in a ranking of countries that drink the most alcohol (11.7 liters of pure alcohol per capita). Germany ranked at number five (13.4 liters), while Moldova topped the list. Nearly half of Russians do not drink alcohol at all.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian cuisine In contrast to France or Italy, Russia is a vast country with diverse culinary influences that lacks a distinct national cuisine. In the past, peasant food in the villages would center around seasonal crops, including the beet used in Borscht, while nobles ate European dishes. Russian cuisine today is a hodgepodge. "Herring under fur coat" (pictured) is derived from the Norwegian "Sildesalat."

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian ballet Russian culture's calling card came in the form of 18th-century courtly entertainment from France to St. Petersburg's court. French choreographers such as Charles Didelot and later Marius Petipa helped the grand dance art to blossom and founded lasting ballet schools.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian art Ilya Repin, Ivan Kramskoi, Ivan Shishkin and other renowned artists made up a highly influential movement of Russian realist painters. Their education at the leading Russian art academies lead to permanent stays in Western Europe. Landscape painter Ivan Shishkin, whose Morning in a Pine Forest (pictured) is considered one of the great Russian realist works, studied in Geneva and Düsseldorf.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian cinema Russian filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein (pictured) and later Andrei Tarkovsky are considered radical innovators in film. As the director of the groundbreaking silent film Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein has continued to have a great influence on filmmakers around the world, with the likes of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola paying homage to his masterwork.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian literature There is no Russia without Pushkin and Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. And there are no great Russian writers who did not maintain close ties to European culture across the centuries. Pushkin wrote his letters in French; Gogol spent 10 of his 43 years in Italy and Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were in intense dialogue with the Western humanist tradition.

Russian exports that made it big abroad Russian music Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov or Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame are world opera classics, and 20th-century symphonies are unthinkable without Shostakovich or Prokofiev. Russian music's special national character developed in the mid-19th century with the founding of the New Russian School of composers that included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, author of operas like The Tsar's Bride (pictured). Author: Anastassia Boutsko (als)



Anti-smoking drive

Meanwhile, a decree banning smoking on private balconies went into effect on Tuesday. The legislation, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, bans any "open fire" on balconies of residential houses or hotels.

"In 60% of cases, the cause of balcony fires is careless smoking," Russia's emergencies ministry said last week, adding that it was not waging war on smokers.

More than 2,000 fires started on balconies so far this year.

Watch video 01:39 Share New Russian vodka tax could harm alcoholics Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2SzMs New Russian vodka tax could harm alcoholics

kw/rc (AFP)

DW sends out a daily selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.