It will be tougher for Russians to cry in their beer in 2013.
Restrictions on when and where beer can be sold go into effect Jan. 1 with a law that declared beer is alcohol, not food.
Under the new rules, beer can only be sold in licensed outlets — not street kiosks, gas stations and bus depots like it has been. Russians won't be able to buy it from shops between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m., and beer commercials are a thing of the past.
The limits are part of a government effort to reduce alcohol abuse in Russia, where one in five male deaths are linked to booze, according to world health experts.
Not everyone is toasting the change, however.
The brewing industry warns that the crackdown could make harder alcohol even more popular.
"It will be tougher if you want to buy a beer on the way home from work, or pop down from your apartment," Isaac Sheps, chairman of the Union of Russian Brewers, told London's Daily Telegraph.
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TXT 24
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