Ekaterinburg
Alcohol poisoning: 18 people die in Russia
At least 18 people have died of alcohol poisoning in Russia. Photo: Patrick Seeger / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Alcohol is cheap on the black market in Russia. For this, people repeatedly pay with their health or with their life. New, terrifying cases have now become known.
Within a few days there was again mass poisoning of people in Russia with adulterated alcohol.
In the process, 18 men and women died in the Urals, most of them in the city of Yekaterinburg, the investigators said on Saturday. The victims were between 25 and 78 years old. Two suspects were therefore arrested.
The investigators accuse the 43 and 54-year-old men of selling toxic methyl alcohol in a market for a good week. One of the men is reported to have already been fined for trafficking in alcohol. If convicted, they face up to ten years’ imprisonment.
According to the reports, 13 canisters with remains of an alcoholic liquid were confiscated. Investigators said that other possible sales locations are currently being investigated. It was initially unclear how many people drank the alcohol and survived. Yekaterinburg is about 1400 kilometers east of Moscow.
A woman reported to the local news portal “E1.ru” that her mother and stepfather had died after a birthday party. «My mother suddenly went blind. She was taken to the intensive care unit and fought for her life for a day. ” The 47-year-old had rarely drunk alcohol, the daughter reported.
As recently as the beginning of October, 35 people died in southern Russia because they had drunk adulterated alcohol. As a result, there were extensive controls of sales outlets in the Orenburg region around 1200 kilometers southeast of Moscow on the border with Kazakhstan. The police arrested several people.
Vodka and other alcohol can only be sold in Russia with official identification numbers. Nevertheless, serious alcohol poisoning occurs again and again, especially in the provinces, because drinks are sometimes made there from cheap but life-threatening industrial alcohol.