Russian Drinkers Thirst for Foreign Wines

Russian wine lovers are facing a parched summer after a bureaucratic foul-up that has left shelves empty in off-licences across the country.

Vodka and other traditional winter warmers are fast becoming the only tipples available, just as the population wilts in a heatwave.

A delay in the introduction of new excise stamps on alcohol means all imported wines and spirits with old labels must be removed from sale by July 1.

At the Aromatniy Mir off-licence near Belorusskaya station in central Moscow today a single bottle of French cognac and three bottles of Californian red wine were all that remained on rows of dusty racks normally crammed with foreign alcohol.

"We've no idea when the next supplies will be in," said Lena, a shop assistant.

About 75% of Russian alcohol consumption is hard spirits with wine a popular alternative, especially in the summer. Beer is treated as an elevated kind of juice.

Russian wine is largely abominable and decent supplies from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union were cut off in March when a politically shaded ban on Moldovan and Georgian wine was introduced. Importers and distributors - still struggling to overcome that setback - have complained the new crisis will slash hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.

The glitch came about when too few excise labels were provided too slowly to importers and new bar code readers were not installed in time.

However, there is one advantage to the shortage: it may cut the frightening number of alcohol-related drownings as Russians try to escape the heat and cool off in lakes and rivers. This month 44 people have died in Moscow's waterways.