OREANDA-NEWS In Russia, they decided to fight the spread of counterfeit alcohol in a new way. To combat the illegal turnover of alcohol, the Federation Council proposes to oblige manufacturers of glass containers to put a stamp on their bottles, with reference to the text of the document, the Izvestia newspaper reports.

The initiative to oblige factories to brand glass containers and introduce liability for the absence of identification marks is explained by the possibility of legalizing the cycle from bottle production to alcohol consumption by the buyer. Otherwise, manufacturers of glass containers are exempt from responsibility for the production and bottling of underground alcohol, said the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets Sergey Ryabukhin. According to him, when implementing the initiative, the consumer will know that a bottle without a brand means counterfeit, he added.

"Let's say people were poisoned en masse. Law enforcement officers take the bottle and begin an investigation. They carry out various analyses, crumble the bottle into powder. And the composition determines at which factory it is made. It takes us weeks. Why do we complicate the control procedure? Putting a stamp on the bottle makes this procedure completely transparent," the senator explained.

According to the president of the Union of Producers of Alcoholic Beverages Igor Kosarev, the need to put a stamp on the glass container does not force to re-equip the lines and make changes to the technological process. The Association of Glass Container Manufacturers also noted that most conscientious factories already label their goods, but they do it on a voluntary basis.

For the first time, a bill obliging to label glass containers produced in Russia was introduced in 2021. Its authors stated that the measure will allow identifying the manufacturer of the container. However, the text did not go beyond the second reading. As one of the authors of the project Sergey Ryabukhin noted, there is no responsibility in the law for the manufacture of containers for illegal producers of alcohol, which unties the producers' hands.

The Ministry of Finance previously supported the online sale of alcohol in the country. The legalization of such a measure has more pluses than minuses, said the head of the department Anton Siluanov. According to him, state control over such sales will make it possible to combat sites that sell "burnt" alcohol.

At the same time, retail chains opposed the initiative. Industry representatives considered that allowing alcohol to be sold on the Internet would lead to the creation of a "weakly controlled and high-risk sales channel" and create risks for consumers. The Chairman of the Presidium of ACORT noted that adult buyers have no problem with the purchase of alcohol by pickup, and the legalization of online sales will lead to a sharp increase in the number of sites engaged in them in the absence of effective mechanisms to block the spread of counterfeit goods on the Internet.