Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050149 SECTION: NATIONAL/INT PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun DATELINE: LIPETSK, RUSSIA LENGTH: Short
They're getting more drunk than ever.
An epidemic of alcohol abuse is sweeping the nation, with costly consequences.
In Lipetsk, a typical city of 500,000 and the center of a region of 1.2 million, doctors estimate that nearly half the adult male population is alcoholic. And this is a place where they are trying to do something about it.
For Russia, alcohol has become a deadly enemy, although one often overlooked in the general chaos of post-Communist life.
Experts attribute a dramatic drop in life expectancy - unprecedented for a developed country - largely to the steadily rising drinking of the last few years.
Six years ago, life expectancy for Russian men was nearly 65. Now it is 60, heading steadily toward 59.