The State Duma has passed on first reading a government-proposed bill aimed at improving the state regulation of the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol-containing products, and also beer and alcohol-containing drinks.

To prevent alcoholism among young people, the bill proposes introducing compulsory labeling of products with low alcohol content and products with alcohol content of over 7 percent, as well as prohibiting the turnover of alcohol-containing products with alcohol content under 7 percent bottled in consumer containers larger than 330 ml.

The restrictions on the volume of consumer containers for products with low alcohol content will promote a reduction of the one-time dose of consumption of these products, and the transition to smaller consumer containers will increase the cost of products, as compared to the amount of products bottled into larger consumer containers, which will also be an additional restriction on the sale of these drinks.

The document proposes introducing restrictions on the retail sale of all alcohol-containing products, beer, and alcohol-containing drinks on premises near children’s, educational, medical, and cultural organizations, except for organizations or public catering establishments located in them (the current legislation prohibits the sale of alcohol-containing products, beer, and alcohol-containing drinks in children’s, educational, and medical organizations, and cultural organizations).

The document prohibits the sale of all alcohol-containing products, beer, and alcohol-containing drinks with alcohol content over 5 percent in busy places and near sources of high-danger, including railways, airports, metro stations, wholesale food markets, military objects and territories near them, and also in kiosks, and other areas not equipped for the sale of these products.

The law also prohibits the sale of all alcohol-containing products and beer between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Russian regions are given the right to establish additional restrictions on the time and location for the sale of such products and even fully prohibit their sale.

In addition, organizations and private businessmen that have no stationary warehouse and trading facilities will not be able to sell beer and beer-containing products with alcohol content over 5 percent.

To increase the effectiveness of alcohol market regulation, the document proposes to define legislatively beer as an alcohol-containing product produced from malt, hop, yeast, and water without the addition of ethyl alcohol, aromatic and taste additives with ethyl alcohol content over 0.5 percent of the final product.

If alcohol is added to beer, such products will be classified as beer-containing drinks, to which some provisions of the law “On the State Regulation of the Production and Turnover of Ethyl Alcohol, Alcohol and Alcohol-Containing Products” will apply.

Due to the classification of beer as an alcohol-containing product, the document proposes invalidating the law “On Restrictions on Retail Sale and Consumption (Drinking) of Beer and Beer-Containing Drinks.”

The bill prohibits the production of ethyl alcohol and alcohol-containing products produced using ethyl alcohol (except for wine and beer-containing drinks) below the norms of the minimal use of production capacities established by the Russian government.

At the same time, the bill provides that organizations that cannot observe these norms will have a right to suspend the use of equipment after notifying the licensing body of that. Such suspension of equipment use does not mean suspension of a license, and the suspension period will not be taken into account by the licensing body when calculating the use of equipment with the purpose of observing the standards of the minimal use of production capacities.

The bill provides that the sale of ethyl alcohol and unpackaged alcohol-containing products with ethyl alcohol content over 25 percent of the final product can occur only after the seller provides a notice confirming the purchase.

For this reason, the bill proposes introducing licensing of the transportation of ethyl alcohol and unpackaged alcohol-containing products with ethyl alcohol content over 25 percent.