‘We bought it, might as well drink it’ By restricting weekday liquor sales to a two-hour window, Russia’s Vologda region hopes to curb alcoholism. Here’s how it’s working out.

‘We bought it, might as well drink it’ By restricting weekday liquor sales to a two-hour window, Russia’s Vologda region hopes to curb alcoholism. Here’s how it’s working out.

In Russia’s Vologda region, weekday alcohol sales have been restricted since March 1: liquor may be bought only between noon and 2:00 p.m. The new dry law is the brainchild of eccentric Governor Georgy Filimonov, known as a protégé of Vladimir Putin’s influential domestic policy czar Sergey Kiriyenko and a friend of Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova. Six months after the law was adopted, reporters from Bereg, a cooperative of independent jour…