Drinking Habits of Russian Regions Have Been Rated In a Nationwide Survey
The soberest people live in the North Caucasian republics, while the most heavy-drinking regions are Magadan and Buryatia.
Specialists from Sober Russia NGO together with the journalists of the Vesti Call Center composed a special Sobriety Rating of our country's regions. The project was presented at the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Sultan Khamzayev, leader of the Sober Russia project, and journalist Eduard Petrov answered some questions.
- Sultan Sultanovich, the Sobriety Rating of the Regions 2017 has been issued. Tell us about how it was made and the indicators that your experts heeded.
Sultan Khamzayev: The main goal of the Rating is to identify the actual situation in the regions. Speaking about official statistics, it's vital to make it to the point and concise. We want the federal government to pay attention to the troubled regions.
While making the Rating, the experts didn't rely only on the data provided by official bodies.
Eduard Viktorovich, we see the numbers. We also know that the Sober Russia project cooperated with the Vesti Call Center. Is it fair to say that journalists, working in the regions, got to see the situation firsthand and can proceed not only from the data, but also from the actual situation that they witnessed?
Eduard Petrov: Data and experts' conclusions are helpful, of course, we thoroughly study them and take them into account. But journalists believe only facts, so we wanted to go to the regions to see the situation there in person. Thanks to our colleagues from Sober Russia, we took part in sweeps, almost all of them were secretly planned because you only warn a region about an inspection to spoil it and not to get a real understanding of the situation. Most of the footage was made without prior call.