No more pouring: Russia may ban the sale of alcohol to people under 21

On Thursday, July 3, it became known that a bill was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, according to which restrictions on the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 21 may be introduced. The relevant document is posted in the electronic database of the lower house of Parliament. Read more about the bill in the Izvestia article.

Prohibition on the sale of alcohol to persons under 21 years of age: what is known

On Thursday, July 3, a bill was submitted to the State Duma, which establishes restrictions on the sale of all types of alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21. Its author was Senator Maria Sidukhina.

"For the purpose of comprehensive legal regulation of this problem, it is proposed to establish restrictions on the sale of all types of alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21," the explanatory note says.

Currently, all citizens over the age of 18 can purchase alcoholic beverages.

"At the same time, it is a generally recognized fact that alcohol has a negative impact on a person's physical condition, as well as contributes to the destruction of social relationships and hinders the development of human personality," the explanatory note says.

Senator Artem Sheikin in an interview with the newspaper.Ru" has already doubted that the bill will be passed.

"I think that the bill in the proposed version will not receive support. Raising the age of alcohol sales to 21 requires discussion. At the age of 18, a person legally becomes an adult, receives all civil rights and duties: he can vote, marry, enter into contracts, and bear full criminal responsibility. Moreover, starting from this age, he has the right to purchase weapons in accordance with the procedure established by law. He is considered an adult, and he is asked as an adult. We cannot selectively approach the concept of maturity. If the state trusts a person to make decisions in the political and legal life of the country from the age of 18, then why does it believe that he is unable to make an informed choice regarding alcohol," Sheikin said.

Attempts to change the minimum age for alcohol sales: a history

Similar initiatives have existed before. In 2015, two bills appeared at once, which proposed raising the age of sale of alcoholic beverages from 18 to 21. The initiators were Anton Belyakov and Vyacheslav Fetisov. Both documents were rejected in the first reading.

In 2018, Tatyana Golikova, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation for Social Policy, spoke about the idea of raising the age for alcohol sales, saying that the experience of many countries, including the CIS, could be taken into account. However, she added that the minimum age may be 20 years, not 21 years. She also noted that at an earlier age there are certain risks of addiction, and children simply ruin their health.

Also in 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation supported an initiative to increase the age of alcohol sales to 21 years.

"It seems to us absolutely correct to raise the age for the sale of alcoholic beverages to 21 years. <...> We know that alcohol acts most destructively at a young age," said Veronika Skvortsova, Minister of Health (until 2020).

On December 14, it became known that the relevant bill was under development. The arguments of medical specialists were cited as arguments: the metabolism at a young age is completely different from that of at least 21-year-olds, at the age of 18-20, boys and girls are actually still teenagers and, by all accounts, extremely vulnerable to alcohol. There was also the fact that the human brain, its internal structure and structural elements, on average, are finally formed only by the age of 21.

The relevant draft law was published on the regulatory legal acts portal in 2019 and provided for a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages stronger than 16.5% to citizens under the age of 21. This initiative was opposed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development, according to which the measure was ineffective and could lead to the development of a shadow alcohol market. In addition, it was noted that there is no equipment at the cash registers of stores that could automatically receive information about the strength of a particular drink. Later, the Ministry of Health came up with similar initiatives again, but they were never accepted.

One of the latest initiatives to increase the age for alcohol sales was announced by Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

"To prevent alcoholization of young people, it is necessary to introduce a ban on the sale of alcohol-containing products (including low—alcohol and brewing) to persons under the age of 21," he said.