Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Honest Reporting in Russia, Go Figure

An article in Pravda notes the Putin gave "gave an interview to Russia"s leading TV companies and touched upon particularly important issues." Note the phrase particularly important issues.  What is the issue prominently discussed within the article?  Public beer consumption, and enforcement of law prohibiting public beer consumption.  A paragraph, from the article, I particularly enjoyed.

"It is not a secret that very few Russians can afford expensive restaurants. So, the police may be happy if the law is adopted. Indeed, if the innovation is introduced the police will be able to accept bribes from those who violate the new law and drink beer in public. It is perfectly clear that policemen would like to take 50 rubles instead of drawing up reports as concerning every man drinking beer in public. Let us switch over to the economic part of the problem. The Russian beer market made up 7.57 billion litres last year. Expert researches reveal that about 15 per cent of beer is consumed in public. It means that violation of the new law mat be registered over 2 billion of times a year. In other words, annual wages of the police will rise by at least 100 billion rubles. However, this may be a happy perspective for the police only."

“Russian police to profit from the “beer law".”

Posted by John Venlet on 11/30 at 04:42 AM
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