During the first ten days of every new year, life in Russia fades, writes a German magazine, Focus.
"Government offices are closed, newspapers are not published, factories stop production, railways of the colossal country have hundreds of abandoned rail cars".
"While economy is losing billions, thousands of people get drunk to death. Only fire service and police are only on duty. As experience shows, the number of fires and crimes significantly increases. Russia's Chief Surgeon, Gennady Onishchenko, called such long additional vacations a "decade of horror", the magazine writes.
According to Focus, sociologists and other scholars regularly call on moving a part of the winter break to another season or cancel it, as the people, especially in remote villages, have nothing to do in winter.
According to psychologist Sergei Klyuchnikova, after third or fourth day of continuous vodka drinking, money is running out and problems start. These days show growth in the number of scuffles and domestic violence.
In addition, the magazine recalls that collective hard drinking threatens Russia also on May Day, starting from the "Day of Spring and Labor", as the Russians now call it, on May 1, till V-Day on May 9. According to economists, Russia loses during these holidays about $ 30,000 million in its GNP.
The magazine says that in addition to alcohol producers, travel agencies also take advantage of such holidays. The growing upper middle travel to Turkey or Thailand, and the wealthy elite makes holidays at prestigious Alpine resorts in such places as Swiss Courchevel or Davos, which turn into Little Moscow during the holidays.
Many Russians are acrimonious that the Kremlin has introduced long new-year holidays just for fun of a few hundred of super rich persons.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
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