Paul Goble
Vienna, April 12 – Russians now consume nearly three times as much alcohol per person as they did in 1990, a public health disaster that is being compounded by increased drinking among women and youth and increased use of alcoholic compounds not intended for human consumption.
According to the chief medical officer of the Russian Federation consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor, Russians consumed 5.38 liters of pure alcohol per capita each year in 1990. Now, the official figure is 80 percent higher, but the actual one -- including moonshine and other substances – is nearly three times greater.
As a result, Gennadiy Onishchenko continues, there are now more than 2.3 million Russians suffering from alcoholism, roughly one in 60 of the country’s total population and one in 35 of those over the age of 18. And all too many of those suffering from this disease ultimately die of it or of related complications.
There was a slight improvement in mortality from alcohol poisoning between 2005 and 2006, he says, but deaths from this cause remain “impermissibly high and constitute some 12 percent for the country as a whole and up to 18 percent in some regions.
Mortality in Russia connected with the use and abuse of alcohol, however, has continued to rise. In 2003, Onishchenko reported, there were 58,495 alcohol-related deaths; in 2005, there were 62,447. Moreover, he said, the number of cases of “mass” alcohol poisoning increased dramatically over the last year.
(Onishchenko’s report, prepared for release in February but officially approved only a week ago by the Justice Ministry a week ago, is available online at http://www.rospotrebnadzor.ru/docs/decision/?id=924. A summary of its findings and recommendations can be found at http://www.politcom.ru/print.php?id=4413.)
In an official report summarized online, Onishchenko placed some of the blame on increases in both the mix of alcoholic beverages available and advertising for them. But part of the increase – and the official figures undoubtedly understate this – reflects consumption of things like perfume and household cleaners that contain alcohol.
Poorer and younger people especially drink these things, Onishchenko continued, and the consequences are dire, with tens of thousands of these consumers getting sick and many dying. In February of this year, he reported, 90 people died from such “drinks” in Moscow, the richest city in the country.
Russian firms are producing more light alcohol drinks, Onishchenko said, something many experts had thought would reduce vodka consumption. But that has not happened. While the amount of lighter beverages has increased three times over the last eight years, Onishchenko said, Russians’ drinking of hard liquor has gone up as well.
A particular source of concern, the consumer protection official said, is that women and very young people have dramatically increased their consumption of alcohol. Indeed, he continues, the average age of “the young alcoholic” has fallen from the 16 to 18 year age group to the 23 to 15 year old cohort.
The spreading of alcoholism, of course, has the most negative consequences for Russia’s demographic future, and consequently, Onishchenko calls for an expanded struggle against the illegal production and sale of alcohol as well as improved supervision of already registered factories and distributors.
He notes that his agency has taken extraordinary steps to protect consumers by inspecting existing factories and calling attention to violators. But despite successes on this front, Onishchenko concedes, Moscow appears to be fighting a losing battle against alcoholism
But Onishchenko does not want to concede defeat and called on regional governments to form special commissions to combat alcoholism, on the media to broadcast more on the evils of drink, and on schools to add “special courses on the harm alcohol can do.”
Nonetheless, the tone of Russia’s chief advocate for consumer protection is anything but optimistic: Moscow has tried all these things and more in the past and not succeeded in significantly reversing the dangerous trends that Onishchenko and others before him have described.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Window on Eurasia: Moscow Steps Up Support for ‘Traditional’ Islam in North Caucasus
Paul Goble
Vienna, April 12 – To counter a rising tide of Islamist extremism in the North Caucasus, Russian Federation officials there have engineered the return of that region’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD), announced plans to help pay for two new Islamic universities, and sought to tighten restrictions on religious publications there.
On Wednesday, Dmitriy Kozak, the activist Presidential representative to the Southern Federal District, met with the top leaders of the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the Northern Caucasus as well as with most of the other senior muftis from that region’s various republics.
Kozak “noted the major role of confessions in preserving the stabilization of society, positively assessed the activity of religious leaders in the spiritual training of Muslims in the republics of the northern Caucasus, and proposed that the muftis talk about the problems agitating them” (http://www.islam.ru/rus/2007-04-11/#15918).
But both the announcements that came followed and perhaps even more the fact that it was conducted behind closed doors after Kozak’s opening remarks suggest that he and other Russian officials are working hard to put a positive spin on a situation that has deteriorated.
First, Ismail Berdiyev, the head of the Coordinating Council, announced that his organization had finally secured the backing of both the government in Kabardino-Balkaria and the muftis of the other republics of the region to open an office in Nalchik, something that will eventually allow him and his small staff to return from Moscow.
Some regional leaders have opposed Berdiyev’s return lest their own power to deal with Muslims be limited, and some of his backers also have opposed it, viewing Berdiyev’s residence in Moscow as giving them and the Muslims of the North Caucasus more influence rather than less.
Unlike the Russian Orthodox Church and until very recently, virtually all major Muslim institutions – the MSDs – in tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet times have been located away from the Russian capital, a situation that has limited their ability to make contacts abroad and to influence the Russian government itself.
Second, Kozak declared that the Russian authorities would help fund two new Islamic universities that are to open in the region next year. These institutions, he said, will train mullahs and imams in “traditional” Islam so that they can combat “the Wahhabis” as Russians tend to refer to all Muslim radicals.
One of these institutions will be located in Makhachkala, the capital of Daghestan; the other is to open in Nalchik. Intriguingly, one report of the meeting says that these schools will provide instruction in both the Shafai and Hanafi legal schools of Sunni Islam (http://www.islamnews.ru/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4804).
Most Muslims in the Russian Federation follow the Hanafi trend, and what makes this announcement intriguing is that many Moscow commentators Muslim and non-Muslim alike have suggested that only it is truly “traditional” moderate Russian Islam. Clearly, in this case, Moscow has made a compromise.
And third, the Presidential representative said, Russian officials from now on will allow the muftis of the region to carry fire arms for self-defense, a longstanding demand by people many of whom have been attacked and some of whose predecessors have been killed (http://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=12390).
Berdiyev himself has been violently attacked on several occasions as have most of his senior Muslim colleagues across the region. And at least some imams and mullahs have fled from rural areas where they were and presumably still are at risk of attack or even death at the hands of radicals and insurgents.
But even as this meeting between Kozak and the Muslim leaders was taking place, another official in the North Caucasus issued a statement that underscores just how dangerous the situation almost certainly now is for those who hope to promote moderate “traditional” Islam as a counter Islamist radicalism.
In Daghestan, Eduard Urazayev, the minister for nationality policy, information and external relations, announced that he has proposed forcing those who put out publications with print runs under 1,000 copies be forced to seek registration with the authorities (http://www.religio.ru/news/14627_print.html).
Up to now, Russian law requires registration only for publications that are printed in more than a thousand copies each issue. Not surprisingly, some religious and political organizations have exploited this loophole, printing various appeals and newsletters in 999 or fewer copies.
Now, in the same of fighting “Wahhabism” and promoting traditional Islam, Russian officials are closing that legal loophole, possibly restricting the dissemination of ideas they do not approve of but equally likely forcing these publications underground where they may become even more politicized.
Vienna, April 12 – To counter a rising tide of Islamist extremism in the North Caucasus, Russian Federation officials there have engineered the return of that region’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD), announced plans to help pay for two new Islamic universities, and sought to tighten restrictions on religious publications there.
On Wednesday, Dmitriy Kozak, the activist Presidential representative to the Southern Federal District, met with the top leaders of the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the Northern Caucasus as well as with most of the other senior muftis from that region’s various republics.
Kozak “noted the major role of confessions in preserving the stabilization of society, positively assessed the activity of religious leaders in the spiritual training of Muslims in the republics of the northern Caucasus, and proposed that the muftis talk about the problems agitating them” (http://www.islam.ru/rus/2007-04-11/#15918).
But both the announcements that came followed and perhaps even more the fact that it was conducted behind closed doors after Kozak’s opening remarks suggest that he and other Russian officials are working hard to put a positive spin on a situation that has deteriorated.
First, Ismail Berdiyev, the head of the Coordinating Council, announced that his organization had finally secured the backing of both the government in Kabardino-Balkaria and the muftis of the other republics of the region to open an office in Nalchik, something that will eventually allow him and his small staff to return from Moscow.
Some regional leaders have opposed Berdiyev’s return lest their own power to deal with Muslims be limited, and some of his backers also have opposed it, viewing Berdiyev’s residence in Moscow as giving them and the Muslims of the North Caucasus more influence rather than less.
Unlike the Russian Orthodox Church and until very recently, virtually all major Muslim institutions – the MSDs – in tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet times have been located away from the Russian capital, a situation that has limited their ability to make contacts abroad and to influence the Russian government itself.
Second, Kozak declared that the Russian authorities would help fund two new Islamic universities that are to open in the region next year. These institutions, he said, will train mullahs and imams in “traditional” Islam so that they can combat “the Wahhabis” as Russians tend to refer to all Muslim radicals.
One of these institutions will be located in Makhachkala, the capital of Daghestan; the other is to open in Nalchik. Intriguingly, one report of the meeting says that these schools will provide instruction in both the Shafai and Hanafi legal schools of Sunni Islam (http://www.islamnews.ru/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4804).
Most Muslims in the Russian Federation follow the Hanafi trend, and what makes this announcement intriguing is that many Moscow commentators Muslim and non-Muslim alike have suggested that only it is truly “traditional” moderate Russian Islam. Clearly, in this case, Moscow has made a compromise.
And third, the Presidential representative said, Russian officials from now on will allow the muftis of the region to carry fire arms for self-defense, a longstanding demand by people many of whom have been attacked and some of whose predecessors have been killed (http://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=12390).
Berdiyev himself has been violently attacked on several occasions as have most of his senior Muslim colleagues across the region. And at least some imams and mullahs have fled from rural areas where they were and presumably still are at risk of attack or even death at the hands of radicals and insurgents.
But even as this meeting between Kozak and the Muslim leaders was taking place, another official in the North Caucasus issued a statement that underscores just how dangerous the situation almost certainly now is for those who hope to promote moderate “traditional” Islam as a counter Islamist radicalism.
In Daghestan, Eduard Urazayev, the minister for nationality policy, information and external relations, announced that he has proposed forcing those who put out publications with print runs under 1,000 copies be forced to seek registration with the authorities (http://www.religio.ru/news/14627_print.html).
Up to now, Russian law requires registration only for publications that are printed in more than a thousand copies each issue. Not surprisingly, some religious and political organizations have exploited this loophole, printing various appeals and newsletters in 999 or fewer copies.
Now, in the same of fighting “Wahhabism” and promoting traditional Islam, Russian officials are closing that legal loophole, possibly restricting the dissemination of ideas they do not approve of but equally likely forcing these publications underground where they may become even more politicized.
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