One Third of Russians Do Not Drink Vodka

Vodka goes up in price in Russia. Are people anxious about it?
Over one third of Russians (37 per cent) do not drink vodka and consequently do not care that it may become more expensive. The information was obtained thanks to an opinion poll conducted by ROMIR Monitoring among 1,600 respondents. The research was conducted because the alcohol excise tax system was changed in Russia starting with January 1, 2004. 

This year, alcohol producers will pay 20 per cent of the excise rate. 32 per cent of the respondents say higher prices for vodka are annoying but they take the increase in price easy as their families drink little vodka. 15 per cent of people are optimistic: they say that together with expensive vodka there still will be cheaper brands on  the market. The rise in vodka price is not a trouble at all for 8 per cent of the respondents because these people always buy vodka of better quality at higher prices. 6 per cent say the rise in price will seriously undermine their family budgets; 2 per cent of the respondents found it difficult to answer the question.