There Is No Room for “Oktoberfest” in Russia

So that’s what we get. Authorities of the capital have been promoting alcoholization for ten years now. The summer holiday of beer in Luzhniki has always been attended by Muscovites.   

Concerts of popular music groups, meat and sausages on grill, participation in contests. All this has turned the event into a family holiday, and it has been like this for long. What is important that one may taste favorite drinks without leaving the city. According to representatives of the steering committee of the holiday, on an annual basis, brewers from the Czech republic, Germany, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Laos, Korea and Singapore come to Luzhniki. This is what “MK” was informed of. And if from the far and near abroad people come with a visit, brewers from the regions come as if they arrived to work. “It is almost the only opportunity to show to the capital that they exist”, says Oleg Starukhin, vice-president of Association of Beer Lovers (arrangers of the Moscow Beer Festival). People from Tomsk, Syktyvkar, Vladimir, Ryazan, Podmoskovye, and Suzdal come with their own mead. They cannot get into supermarkets. All sorts of beer represented on the shelves of retail chain supermarkets are produced by five large companies and there is no room for small ones. Muscovites are deprived of the opportunity to drink high quality regional beer. One cannot buy it in shops or bars”. 

Arrangers of the “Russian Oktoberfest” deem that if the Holiday of Beer is banned there will not be less alcohol addicted people. And they explain that they arranged all this not for people getting drunk but for teaching consumption culture. “Many people come with members of their families together with children. It is that if this holiday is banned Muscovites will have fewer holidays”, Mr. Starukhin sighs. He suggests paying attention to the fact that people drink surrogates in the regions. “No one prohibits them to drink surrogate alcohol”.  

And in fact consumption of surrogate alcohol even on a commercial scale on the territory of the Russian Federation is not prohibited by any concept. Possibly because it is no use. And yet the essence of the problem for bureaucrats of the Rosalkoholregulirovanie (the Russian Service for Regulation of Alcohol Market (Rosalkogolregulirovanie), by all appearances, is in the following: such fighting will not be seen by the president. And to prohibit beer festivals with fanfare – it seems like it was a report on the work done.  

Together with beer festivals wine festivals may also be banned. For reference: the last ones, as a rule, are held in a closed mode, people get there on the basis of their invitation tickets. And these cannot attract youth or children. According to a participant of such events, “if they started to ban these activities, I suggest banning the Football Champions’ League. Beer flows like water there”.  
 
Vyacheslav Mamontov, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Russian Brewers answered the questions of “MK”:

— Which role do beer festivals play?

— Beer festivals which in the majority of cases are held on the basis of the initiative of local authorities and are aimed at formation of beer consumption culture. For beer producers, first of all, for small and medium-sized breweries, one of the most efficient and affordable ways of familiarizing the consumers with their products. For instance, in Moscow in “Luzhniki”, as it is known, on an annual basis, since 1999, beer festivals are held. Within the framework of the festival, small and medium-sized breweries from Siberia, Povolzhye, Northern regions of the country represent their products. In addition, it needs to be noted that festivals play a considerable role in formation of responsible consumption of beer. Thus, in 2008-2009 within the framework of festivals in Moscow and St. Petersburg and several other cities events have been held on the basis of the program worked out by the Union of Russian Brewers “After 18", to support the legislative ban on sales of beer to persons under age.

— Do you think it is fair that beer is classified among strong alcohol?

— According to several experts the reason of growth of alcoholization of the population is the high level of consumption of strong alcohol and surrogates. The fact that beer is subject to legal norms which are in effect with regard to alcohol produce will lead to considerable reduction of the price gap between strong alcohol drinks and beer and will create economic prerequisites for a shift of the consumer demand of the population in favor of strong alcohol. Therefore, growth of the level of consumption of the strong alcohol and illegal alcohol produce more affordable for the population, as well as cheap surrogates, will be the consequences of implementation of such a decision.