Did you know that in Russia beer was considered a soft drink and that it could be bought from kiosks and vending machines 24/7? Well, not anymore.
It may be hard to believe, then again it answers a lot of the questions we have about Russian dash-cam videos, but many Russians would regard beer as nothing more than a soft drink, like Sprite or Coke.
Well sadly for the ‘casual’ drinkers of Russia, beer will now be considered an alcoholic beverage from today. Beer, along with any alcoholic drink under 10 per cent volume, used to be considered a foodstuff so it was just like buying a bottle of water or orange juice from the local supermarket.
However, from now on, there will be strict restrictions on where beer can be sold, it won’t be sold between the hours of 11pm and 8am while a complete TV advertising ban on beer will also be brought in.
The move was brought in by the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in 2011 in order to stop alcohol abuse, which has always been prevalent in Russia.
