As Grigory Pasko recently reported on this blog, President Dmitry Medvedev will sure have his hands full in his latest campaign to tackle the problem of Russian alcoholism. This piece from Megan K. Stack in the Los Angeles Times reiterates the depth of the problem:
"We're not drinking," said a construction worker named Vasily Pik who stood gulping down cans of beer with a couple of buddies at noon on a weekday. "We're just killing our hangovers."
Asked about Medvedev's anti-alcohol campaign, Pik burst into raw gasps of laughter.
"It's impossible. He doesn't stand a chance," he said. "The Russian man will always be drinking. Russians don't surrender."
