Up to 600 000 russian die every year from alcohol-related causes. This is the conclusion in a study published in The Lancet. “Excessive alcohol consumption in Russia, particularly by men, has in several recent years caused more than half of all the deaths at ages of 15-54 years,” the Lancet article said. Russian men has a life expectancy of 59 years, and alcohol in believed to be a major cause of this low figure. Alexander Nemtsov, a department chief at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, says to Reuter that the estimated Russia’s annual consumption at 15 litres of pure alcohol per capita, including children and elderly people.

To curb this the government is now planing a serie of measures to combat alcohol abuse. President Dmitry Medvedev has said though that the problem “”cannot be resolved with the help of stupid bans…”

Read more about the study here.