Russia reaches the next level

There's an old Soviet Union joke about the difficult trek from socialism to the unreachable goal of communism. What was needed, the joke went, was a new "ism" to show the masses leadership was making progress.

After a series of meetings, the new "ism" was created.

Alcoholism.

Which brings me to an article from Britain's Daily Mail:

Alcohol kills more than half Russian men and women in their most productive years, according to new research.

The international study found three quarters of deaths among men and half of deaths among women aged 15-54 could be attributed to alcohol abuse.

Such a mortality rate for this age range is five times higher for men and three times higher for women when compared to Western Europe.

Professor David Zaridze, who led the research, worked out that alcohol had killed three million in the country since the failed attempt to restrict sales in 1987.

Russia is a loser society.

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