Whether or not Russia is a rising power (and it’s been suffering on the economic front lately), it certainly does have a national drinking problem. The British medical journal The Lancet produced a study on worldwide use of alcohol and its relationship to cause of death. It discovered a sobering statistic: that 1 in every 25 deaths in the world can be related to alcohol. The numbers got much worse for Russia. The study found that during the period from 1990 to 2001, 52% of all deaths in Russia were alcohol related.
My favorite reaction to this news was from Maxim Vdovin, an unemployed St. Petersburg resident, as provided by the AP:
“No one gives a damn. So many people are dying because of this raw vodka and they don’t give a damn, everybody is drinking and so many people die.”
Granted, Russia has a significant tradition of alcohol and drinking. However, the depressing economic conditions for many Russian citizens begs to be brought into light. One would unlikely see such alcohol statistics in an analogous rising power like China or India.