Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his cabinet to crack down on dangerous vodka substitutes after 62 people in Siberia died this week from drinking contaminated bath oil.
Mr Putin’s decree, published on the Kremlin’s website on Wednesday, will introduce measures restricting the production and sale of cosmetics and medicines with alcohol content above 25 per cent. The move comes amid a surge in cases of people dying from drinking cheap pharmaceutical products for their high alcohol content — sometimes as much as 95 per cent — instead of vodka.
With such products, often available from vending machines on the street, selling for a fraction of the price of legally made vodka, the problem is particularly acute in provincial Russia and has worsened as a two-year recession takes its toll on the poorest Russians.