The Leningrad Region is flirting with the idea of turning off the taps—completely—during the annual Scarlet Sails celebration. Lawmakers are polishing a bill that would slap a blanket ban on alcohol sales across the region, a move that could leave thousands of retailers and restaurants high and dry.
If passed, the prohibition would ripple through:
Maxim Chernigovsky, a spirits industry insider, warns that the proposal reeks of unintended consequences. "This isn’t regulation—it’s target practice with blindfolds," he scoffs. His concerns read like a dystopian grocery list:
The bill’s blind spot? It allegedly spares restaurants in residential areas while hammering retailers—a loophole wide enough to drive a liquor truck through.
Meanwhile, Vologda’s experimental alcohol restrictions—where buying booze requires clock-watching worthy of a Swiss train conductor—offer sobering results. Weekday sales crammed into a two-hour window, weekends stretching until 11 PM. The reason? Grim statistics: alcohol-related deaths climbing like ivy on a crumbling wall, hospitals buckling under addiction cases.
As Leningrad’s lawmakers weigh their decision, one question lingers like the aftertaste of cheap whiskey: Will prohibition protect—or provoke?
