Pskov, March 26, 2021
Photo: ria.ru
The anti-alcohol campaign in Russia over the past 10 years has been “the most inconspicuous,” but also “one of the most effective in the history of the country,” His Eminence Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov, co-chairman of the Church-Public Council for Protection from Alcohol Treats, told RIA-Novosti on Wednesday.
His Eminence has also been the chairman of the RusAlcoholRegulation Council since its creation in 2012—a post to which he was re-elected on Wednesday.
According to the data cited by Met. Tikhon, alcohol consumption has significantly decreased in Russia in recent years, from 15.8 liters of ethanol per person in 2008, to 9.7 in 2017. Between 2008 and 2018, the death rate from accidental alcohol poisoning fell from 13.6 to 3.8 per 100,000 people, the number of patients with alcoholism decreased from 2,082,000 in 2008 to 1,304,000 in 2017, and incidents of alcoholism fell from 121 to 53 cases per 100,000 people from 2008 to 2017.
The number of alcohol-related suicides fell from 26.9 to 12.2 per 100,000 people from 2008 to 2018, and the number of alcohol-related murders fell from 16.5 to 5.2 per 100,000 people.
According to Met. Tikhon, Russia was in first in the world at the start of 2019 in terms of reducing mortality and increasing life expectancy among medium and highly-developed countries. The average Russian life expectancy was 72.7 years in 2017—the highest it’s ever been.
The Russian Orthodox Church has played a key role in reducing the amount of alcohol consumption in the country. There are more than 500 active anti-alcoholism projects in Russia today under the auspices of the Church.
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