Moscow’s city council has banned the sale of energy drinks containing between 1.2% and 9% alcohol by volume, amid concern for their growing popularity among young Russian consumers.
The restrictions will come into effect at the beginning of May for beverages that combine alcohol with stimulant ingredients such as caffeine. It follows suggestions less than a year ago that Vladimir Putin’s administration was considering a federal prohibition on the sale of alcoholic energy drinks, which are favoured by many underage consumers.
The Russian-language newspaper Kommersant reported that 70% of young Moscow residents had consumed one of the products affected by these latest restrictions – although 80% of the city’s wider population favoured a ban.
Individual sellers and large companies could be fined up to 10,000 rubles ($160) or 100,000 rubles ($1,600) respectively for breaching the legislation. The regions of Chechnya, Krasnodar and Altai have already implemented similar rules.
In its bill, Moscow’s city parliament said: “We consider it necessary to prohibit the production and sale of energy drinks in which composition there is alcohol and caffeine, taking into account the harm done to the health of young people, who are the main consumers.”
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