Almost 14 mln liters of illegal alcohol seized in Russia in 2023 - regulator

MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) - The Russian alcohol and tobacco control agency (Rosalkogoltabakkontrol) seized 13.6 million liters of illegal raw materials for alcohol production and end products in 2023 with the assistance of law enforcement authorities, agency head Igor Alyoshin said at a board meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.

Sixty-eight illegal workshops were shut down, and 252 pieces of equipment, including 26 bottling lines, were seized last year. More than 19.5 million liters of illegal alcohol (including beverages seized in previous years) were destroyed on court orders, and 13 vehicles transporting illegal alcohol were seized.

The pressing problem of the lengthy storage of seized alcoholic beverages was solved last year, Alyoshin said. Legislative amendments made it possible to destroy illegal alcohol with an expired shelf life or which has been stored for over three years.

"As a result, the government adopted a resolution which allowed us to destroy about 1,000 tonnes of products in long-term storage. Those measures cut the federal budget's storage expenses by almost a quarter, from 52.7 million rubles to 40 million per month," he said.

Almost 7,500 websites selling alcohol online were blocked last year, Alyoshin said. The agency's presentation noted that over 6,800 websites of this kind were blocked in 2022.