Volgograd Introduces Total Ban on Retail Alcohol Sales

Volgograd is introducing a total ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content exceeding 0.5%. However, it will be in effect for only one day — on Sunday, January 25.

International Students« Day is one of four »fixed« dates when a total ban on the sale of all types of alcoholic products in retail networks is established in the Volgograd region. Alcohol is also not sold on International Children»s Day, celebrated on June 1, on the last Saturday of June — Youth Day, and on Knowledge Day. However, there is a clarification: if September 1 falls on a Sunday, the alcohol sales ban is in effect on the following day.

However, the ban on alcohol sales does not apply to catering establishments, but even here there are certain restrictions, and a member of the Public Chamber of the Volgograd Region, journalist Sergei Zhukov, even called such restrictions harmful: «All these bans on alcohol sales on youth holidays are not only a fiction but also harmful to society,» Mr. Zhukov believes. «The country already has an age restriction on alcohol purchase. Those who »really need it« will stock up in advance. And those who sell the »under-the-counter« brew — these decrees are no decree to them...»