He is especially concerned about the state of “people from the inner circle”.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin began to call on the governors of some regions of Russia to “deploy the promotion of a healthy lifestyle” in contrast to the population's alcoholism. At the same time, as Meduza writes, he raised the topic in conversations with governors of regions that do not belong to the regions with the highest level of alcohol addiction among the population.
“Prior to this, Putin never spoke so often about problems with alcohol addiction in Russia. One of the rare comments on this topic was made in 2016, after 77 residents in Irkutsk were poisoned to death by hawthorn tincture. In response, Putin stated that “alcoholization” is indeed a “problem” for Russia, but added that, for example, in the countries of Northern Europe, they drink just as much,” the newspaper writes, noting that the statement of the head of the Russian Federation about alcoholism in Europe is not is true.
However, some Medusa sources close to the Russian president's administration insist that Putin raised the issue for a reason. According to them, the president began to pay special attention to this problem, because against the background of the war in Ukraine, Russian officials began to drink alcohol much more often and significantly more. Putin is particularly concerned about the condition of “some people from his close circle”.
“People have been relieving stress this way since February. Ministers, their deputies, even some vice prime ministers, employees of the presidential administration and the Security Council, some heads of state corporations, governors,” one of the interlocutors told reporters.
He also noted that the main reason for this “stress ” is related to the real damage caused to Russia by the invasion and sanctions — while Putin allegedly believes that officials should easily cope with these difficulties.
“Sat down [in February] for a glass. Someone got involved,” another source summarized.
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Since almost no one among Russian officials knew about the plans to start a full-scale war in Ukraine, in the first months of the war they were confused and “didn't know what to do”.
At the same time, sources close to the Kremlin note that that, according to their observations, Russia's failures at the front have no effect on the attitude of officials and top managers to alcohol: “They have their own war, their own problems.” However, Putin began to worry about the situation with alcoholism among senior Russian leaders because “lame discipline”.
“Someone disappears before an important event, someone gives a vague and confused report. The general public can already see this,” sources say.
Read also: Problems with imported alcohol: Russian restaurants switch to cocktails made from tinctures
Interlocutors believe that Putin is not going to fire those who who is at fault, but the situation may change.
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Putin himself, according to the media, hardly drinks now (in contrast to his student years).
