‘The shortage of legally produced vodka caused by the changes to the production accounting standards and import and trading regulations is more likely to be felt by the wholesalers rather than retail outlets. According to the data I have, the retailer may be affected some time around the New Year’s Eve,’ said the director of UKM Supermarket Ltd. Valentina Rudakova.

Yet Novie Izvestia newspaper reports that vodka shortage will emerge in many Russian regions as early as the second half of August, which will lead to a dramatic increase in the cases of poisoning caused by drinking various alcohol surrogates.

The newspaper claims that the reasons for the shortage of foreign spirits and potential shortage of homemade ones are changes to the production accounting standards and new import and trading regulations.