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Microcap & Penny Stocks : HGRM--Any Followers?

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To: Bob Smith who wrote (1931)	2/23/1999 3:47:00 PM
From: Jim Burnham	Read Replies (1) of 3576

do do do to do do to do to do to do do This just in... Vodka crisis: 'a matter of national security' A GLOSSARY OF NEW RUSSIA (http://www.megastories.com/russia/glossary/vodka.htm) Spirits in a Moscow street kiosk: police say as much as 60 percent of alcoholic drinks on the market are either illegally brewed or smuggled. Vodka has just about the most complicated relationship with Russian life as it's possible for one product to have with a nation. It's part of Russian national identity. It's also a mass killer. And yet again, it's critical to government finances and economic reform, so critical in fact that the government in 1997 rescinded the measure it had passed five years earlier and reestablished a state monopoly in vodka production and distribution - at least in theory. At the start of 1997, when state control was redecreed, legal products were thought to make up only about 40 percent of Russia's vast vodka market. Illegally produced moonshine had 35 percent of the market and smuggled liquor 25 percent. Thousands of Russians are thought to have died from impurities in moonshine since 1992. And on the other hand, the government estimated it was losing some $4 billion a year in uncollected taxes from vodka sales. Politicians started talking about the 'vodka crisis' and referring to it as a 'matter of national sceurity'. But the bootleg industry was well and almost instantly established in the early 1990s and it's unlikely the government will be able to wipe it out just by decree. Within weeks of the new law being passed, many bootleggers had perfected the official certificate of quality that state produced bottles carried and were sticking them on their bottles. The moonshine is mostly made out by mixing medical alcohol and tap water. But there have also been some gruesome additions. Government testing laboratories regularly find traces of machine oil, brake fluid and wood alcohol. It's not yet clear if the government will be able to recover the billions it is losing through the counterfeit vodka industry - but it would certainly plug a critical hole in public financing. Meanwhile, beer is actually growing in popularity among Russians. The new rich sup all the internationally known famous brands but Moscow's own Tver Beer Factory has also won considerable market share. It still can't compete on price with vodka, though and is far from the poor man's drink it is in many countries.

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